


Unmei no Koe (The Voice of Fate)

by UchihanoChidori



Category: Naruto
Genre: Anal Sex, Blind Character, Drama, M/M, Other, Platonic Romance, Romance, Sexual Tension, Sibling Incest, Sibling Love, Threesome - M/M/M, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-18
Updated: 2014-04-15
Packaged: 2018-01-02 00:09:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 40,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UchihanoChidori/pseuds/UchihanoChidori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Itachi and Sasuke have been in love with each other for a long time, but Itachi's stubborness has limited both their feelings to the pages of the books he writes. A new light in both his and Sasuke's life might just be what he needs to be persuaded that no love should be considered wrong. SasuItaNaru.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for Daydreamer for a Swap at Y!Gallery. 
> 
> This is fic is not Beta'd, so I'm currently reading through it and revising it. It's a five part fic, but since I'll be writing an extra for it soon, I decided to make it a six part fic.

 

 

 

**Unmei no Koe**   **(The Voice of Fate)** **  
**

**Part I**

Being born without something considered essential to many human beings was, more often than not, considered a disability. However, if said 'disability' is everything one has ever known, something they have always lived with, rationally it can hardly be considered as such.

In his thirty years of existence, Uchiha Itachi had been blind as far he could remember. Even if he knew that it wasn't considered normal to not be able to see, he had good ears and an outstanding natural perception of the world around him. It wasn't like he was handicapped, like he knew others out there to be.

The train station was rowdy and noisy as usual, but it wasn't something that upset the tall, elegant blind man as he waited for the train that would take him to work.

 _"And I'm telling you, that damned kid was trying to get the best out of me!"_ a loud, rather obnoxious but energetic voice echoed through the walls around him. _"Me! She was, like, five! Can you believe it? The shit I'm being put through, seriously."_

Itachi's head turned to the side towards the direction from which the voice came. Even though his ears were extremely sensitive to certain sounds and noises that most people wouldn't bother to notice, throughout the years he had effectively learned how to tune out unimportant chatters in public places so he could focus his senses on other important details that were crucial for his ordinary routine of walking around the city by himself. More than people's words, he focused on the noises that filled the streets, like the wheels of vehicles on the road, the sound of shoes on the ground and the rustling of the wind as it hit gently the buildings and possible obstacles in his way.

The doctors had always said that his senses were something out of the ordinary, and Itachi knew that, had it not been because of them, he would probably not be able to move about and go about his life as independently and easily as he did. Of course, he was lucky that he wasn't completely blind, or so it was said to him. He had a good perception of light and dark, which allowed him to also distinguish night from day. Also, he had a vague perception of solid contours, but it wasn't good enough for him to correctly identify objects without touching them unless the lines were sharp, like a table or something with a similar shape.

Even though his perception was very accurate, he still had to use a cane to guide his path because, no matter how well he knew the city, it was wise – and polite – of him to have something to help him without bumping into people and missing unexpected obstacles in front of his face and feet.

Itachi didn't know how to live differently. Sometimes people he knew asked him if he didn't feel curious about what it was like to see the world like a normal person, if he didn't feel frustrated, and he would tell them that he couldn't feel frustrated about something he didn't know. He didn't know what it meant to  _see_  because, as far as he knew, he saw things just fine in his own way and didn't feel bad about himself, since he felt perfectly normal and autonomous. He had always been this way, and had always managed to take care of himself without needing help from others – at least in most things.

Being an exceptionally intelligent man, Itachi had never once questioned himself or his confidence as a blind man. He had always been at the top of his classes in school and in college, and was now an accomplished writer. People said that he was attractive, too, so even if he didn't acknowledge it with arrogance, it was certainly something else to provide a boost of self-esteem for him. He never once felt sorry for himself, and the confident way he acted didn't leave room for others to feel nothing but admiration for him.

Being a calm, composed man who was more than used to the environment surrounding him, seldom did something, or someone, catch his full attention.

However, that voice sure did, and Itachi had no idea what the person's tone held in it, but it was one of the most enticing voices he had ever heard.

Like a rush of adrenaline, his brain was violently assaulted by phrases, words and feelings he instantly grew fascinated with, luring him into the urgent, pungent need to write.

" _I mean, can't parents teach their kids properly?_ " the person kept on saying, unnecessarily loud, followed by someone's laughter. " _Honestly, it's a five start restaurant!_ "

" _Dude, I would so get the fuck out of there,_ " another male voice added, amused. " _I hate those kind of jobs, seriously. I have no patience to deal with shit like that."_

" _It pays the bills, Kiba, considering the number of hours I work._ "

The arrival of his train was announced through the polite voice of a young woman, but the words were lost in Itachi's ears. As the transportation approached, the chatter between the two boys was muffled by the noise of engines and the screeching sound of wheels as they came to a halt.

Itachi felt himself rooted to the spot, his blind eyes searching desperately for the person whose voice he seemed to have lost amidst the crowd, even though he knew he would not be able to see him. Where had it gone to? Where was it? Where was _he_?

A distinct tingle of panic filled his gut as the voice got lost while people boarded the train hurriedly, passing by him. Still, he couldn't move.

He would give anything to hear that voice again, just for one second, but he had missed it, he had lost it, and now he would never hear it again.

For the first time in his thirty years of life, Itachi regretted not being able to  _see_  like any other person, because if he did, he would've known how the person looked like and he would most definitely try to find him.

What was it about that person's voice? It sounded so lively, so…nice. It struck his soul like a well composed symphony, caressing his intellect like a soft, silky imaginary sheet.

The distinct sound of doors slamming closed awakened him from his daze rather abruptly, and the next thing he knew, he could hear the train leaving without him in it.

Had Itachi been one to swear, he would've let out the most grotesque words existing in that twisted, unfair world.

oOo

 _I Drove All Night_  from Cyndi Lauper could be heard throughout the small, contemporary apartment coming from the stereo in the living room. Itachi hummed the tune vaguely, barely aware that he was doing it as his fingers worked at carefully chopping a carrot over a wooden board in the kitchen. The song was a welcomed distraction from his weird thoughts about the voice he had heard on the train station that morning, but even though he had somehow managed to tune it out during the day, he was now being assaulted by all kinds of internal – and rather stupid – conflicts about his feeling towards said voice. His eyebrows were knitted together in light frustration, and he not-really looked down to the spot where he supposed the carrot was.

He didn't know what the hell was so special about that person's voice other than it had transmitted a certain energy that was unbearably contagious. It had been the voice of someone who, obviously, held the soul of bright, positive person. Not many people sounded like that, so carefree and so horribly happy about nothing in particular, as if that man – younger than Itachi, he was sure – had a whole new, more vibrant perspective of life than most ordinary human beings.

Itachi found himself wondering many times in a short period if that person looked as vibrant as his voice sounded. Now that he thought about it, the voice could definitely be considered annoying, and people – Itachi included – didn't usually appreciate such loud displays of vocal eccentricity in the first place.

Still, that voice...something about it had made him want to lose himself in his own mind and delve into hundreds of philosophical theories about it. His brain had been so violently stuck by unending adjectives and sentences it had been impossible for him to stay still and allow them to torture him. As soon as he had arrived at his workplace, he had sat at his desk near the window, grabbed his large notebook and started to write in order to expiate the monster that had invaded the very core of his being in the form of an exuberant voice.

Even though Itachi rarely lacked imagination, it had been a while since he had been so thoroughly violated by raw inspiration.

He had descanted for hours about the faceless stranger, mindless of the frantic movements of his fingers as he wrote them down on paper, for once not really caring if he was writing words over other words.

There was no logical explanation for it, only that lingering after feeling of simultaneous loss and longing that seemed to have come to stay.

For the first time ever, he wished he had been able to see the guy, because now there was no way he would ever know if their paths would ever cross unless he was talking. Or laughing. Hell, Itachi could hear that stupid, resonating laughter even now, and it was driving him crazy.

For years and years, his muses had been insignificant and more than many. He had moved from one fixation to the other rather frequently, his intellectual hunger devouring information like some kind of cultural deviant.

Of course, like every writer, Itachi himself was cursed – or blessed, depending on the perspective – with one substantial muse that always took his inspiration to a whole other level whenever he needed it the most. Not that _he_  should count, Itachi always thought, ever with a bit of shame and regret. He wished he wasn't fueled so often by  _him_ , but after all,  _he_ had been the one to inspire his first best sellers.

In a way, it felt good that he had something so consistent in his life when so many other of his interests could change as fast as the speed of light. Only it wasn't exactly  _right_  to begin with.

Hopefully, his new found fixation would also dissipate soon enough, unlike his permanent one.

 _Stop thinking about it!_  Itachi scolded himself, setting the knife down and carrying the chopped carrots in his shell-shaped, joined hands to the pot on the stove. There was already olive oil in the bottom, along with other various vegetables sprinkled with salt.

At that same moment, he heard the faint sound of keys entering the locker of his main door and opening it.

_Speaking of the devil…_

" _Itachi! Are you home_?"

Itachi sighed in irritation at himself for his own mixed feelings of happiness and annoyance at the person's arrival.

"I'm in the kitchen," he called out lazily, easily finding the buttons and turning on the stove. He opened the drawer to his right and searched for a wooden spoon, and once he felt the texture around his fingers, he took it out and started stirring the contents inside the pan. Something was heavily dropped on the ground in the other division, followed but huffing and shuffling, and soon enough, firm steps approached the kitchen.

"Hey," Sasuke, his younger brother said, tonelessly, upon entering.

"Welcome back," Itachi mumbled, not bothering to turn around to acknowledge him "How was work?"

"I fucking  _hate_  Paris." Sasuke said immediately, coming to stand beside him, his tone cold and unsatisfied.

"You're probably the only person in the world who does," Itachi commented, smirking lightly to himself. "Do you want to stay for dinner?"

"Yeah, sure," Sasuke said easily, and Itachi felt him moving to lean against the counter. "Do you need something? Any help with anything?"

Even if the younger one was asking, he was already fumbling with his pockets and taking something out, a pack of cigarettes, by the sound of it. Confirming Itachi's prediction, the click of a lighter made itself present as the scent of tobacco filled the air beside the sweetened smell of food.

Itachi's head turned to the side and he fixed his unseeing eyes on where he believed his brother to be, not exactly at the level of his own eyes, since Sasuke was only a bit shorter, but a little lower. "Yes, I need you to remove your luggage from my living room."

Sasuke made an unpleased sound with the back of his throat because he was, obviously, taking a drag in the cigarette.

"I haven't had the time to go home, I came straight here after leaving the airport," he said nonchalantly, as he expelled the smoke. "I came to check up on you, and this is how you treat me?"

Letting out a small chuckle, Itachi used his free hand to pat Sasuke's arm condescendingly. "You are always such a good babysitter, little brother."

"Fuck you," Sasuke snarled.

From the feel of it, there was already some sauce starting to form at the bottom of the pan, which meant it was time to add the pieces of meat he had already prepared. He always cooked more than enough for two or three meals, even if Sasuke didn't come to have dinner with him – it was useful for him to have food ready if he someday came home without feeling like cooking.

Sasuke moved, crushing the cigarette on the ashtray not too far from the stove just as Itachi was feeling around the counter for the bowl of raw meat. Not even two seconds went by when firm arms wrapped around his waist from behind and lips were pressed to the right side of his neck. As if injected with adrenaline, Itachi felt his heart start beating a lot faster than usual as a surge of longing, completion and simultaneous anger washed over him.

"Sasuke," he said in a warning tone, his fists clenching over the stony surface of the counter.

"Just shut up, Itachi," Sasuke said, his tone firm and cold in Itachi's ears, unparalleled with the gentle brush of his hands over his stomach and chest. "You can't stop me from missing you."

The older one gritted his teeth as his body itched all over with the overwhelming urge to respond to the affection.

Itachi prided himself for being a calm, collected man who always knew what action to take and what reaction to have at the right place and time. There were few things that managed to break his unshakable balance, but whenever his little brother was around, his resolve was thoroughly put to the test.

"If you found yourself a nice girlfriend, I'm sure things would be different," Itachi replied, willing Sasuke's hands away inside his head, but not really having the physical strength to just push him away. After all, Sasuke had been away for a whole month, and of course, it was impossible not to miss the only constant in his life – the only constant in his heart, so far.

Sasuke planted a small kiss in the back of his ear; the contact was soothing, simple but inviting. His younger brother lacked many qualities and subtleties as far as courting and seducing went, but Itachi knew that Sasuke's personal appeal was strong enough to cover for any of his flaws.

"I already told you that I don't want a fucking girlfriend."

Itachi cleared his throat, his intellect somehow displeased with the foul language.

Sasuke was a thickheaded and arrogant sort of person who always spoke his mind independently of the person he was facing. He never backed down, never gave up on getting what he wanted, and that kind of stubbornness attracted people to him like magnets. That strong determination of his was something that Itachi admired greatly. However, it was another thing when said determination was directed to him.

"A boyfriend, then," he pressed on, his tone even, dispassionate.

"I don't like anyone else," Sasuke grumbled, offering a careful bite to the curve of his neck as his fingers wrapped around the fabric of his sweater, his body pressing itself to Itachi's back, the action sending all sorts of oh so very wrong signals all the way down his body and into his cock. "You're so stubborn, Itachi."

Itachi let out a small, dry chuckle to cover the frustrated moan that threatened to escape his throat.

"Not as stubborn as you, it seems."

"I hate you."

In a way, Itachi knew he was the one to blame for Sasuke's behavior. Itachi had always wanted a little brother, someone who could depend on him, someone he could take care of, so when Sasuke was born, he had done his best to be a big brother he could be proud of, even as blind person. They had always been close, something their parents felt immensely relieved about. Probably moved by Itachi's feelings of protectiveness, Sasuke had always looked up to him, and never once did he belittle him as a human being. Things were great, absolutely perfect until that stupid day when they had kissed.

Sasuke had been thirteen and Itachi eighteen. They had still lived in their parents' house back then, and somehow, in the middle of an awkward conversation about sex – because his little brother had been mortified of even thinking about asking something like that to their father – Sasuke had leaned over and kissed him; out of sheer curiosity, Itachi was sure, but the truth was, curiosity had quickly escalated into a hormonal rampage on both their parts and an insignificant peck had turned into a full make out session.

At the time, Itachi hadn't known what had possessed him to feel such an instant need for Sasuke, so he had simply followed his instincts and just gave in to Sasuke's own enthusiasm. Needless to say, that afterwards, bliss turned into shock, horror and disgust at himself, as he realized that he had all sorts of feelings – wrong, unnatural feelings – for his baby brother. However, while Itachi had forced himself into creating a wall between them, refusing to acknowledge what had happened and not wanting to profane his younger brother's innocence, the truth was, Sasuke had confessed his own, twisted feelings to him, but Itachi hadn't taken him seriously. How could he, when Sasuke had been a child, just barely a teenager with all sorts of questions, desires and stupid ideals about sex, love and the whole world in general?

It sounded like a wonderful not-love story, and had Sasuke been older and not his brother, Itachi wouldn't have said 'no' because, no matter how many girlfriends he had had until then, no-one had made him feel so much like the spoiled brat did. Besides, the younger Uchiha would most certainly grow out of his crush in no time.

Sasuke resented that ideology, because he had remained certain of his feeling to this very day.

Shortly after the incident, Itachi had written his first novel based on what had happened to them, instead replacing himself and his brother for a boy and a girl who were stepbrothers. The success had been immediate.

That had been twelve years previously, and after all that time, Sasuke's brain seemed to have frozen and glued itself to that one day when that terrible mistake had happened.

Nothing had changed for Itachi, either, it seemed, and it maddened him beyond explanation.

They had mostly even stopped addressing each other as siblings altogether, only calling each other by their first names.

Of course, they both had had lovers, but neither seemed to be able to stay in a relationship for long. Itachi knew he valued work above romance, and he considered that Sasuke was just being stubborn into believing that he would, someday, give in.

Sasuke was his muse, and throughout the years, that stupid, stupid messed up love had been the perfect fuel for him.

Itachi didn't believe in God, but he was sure that the world would eventually turn against him if he dared to give in. Truth be told, he thought about that one kiss a lot, and he had almost cracked a few times, but his resolve was strong.

There was nothing he would love more than to see his little brother happy and freed from the imaginary binding he assumed Itachi had put on him. Sasuke was perfectly able to find himself a suitable, stable partner, be it a man or a women; he should do it and move on.

"The luggage, Sasuke."

Sasuke instantly released him with an angry hiss, the warmth of his body abandoning Itachi and leaving him unexpectedly cold, but considerably more relieved.

"You never take me seriously!" Sasuke grunted, picking up something from the counter – the bowl of meat – and taking a few steps towards the stove.

The meat was unceremoniously thrown into the pot. Sasuke settled the bowl down brusquely as Itachi turned his head towards him. "That's because you are still too much of a child," he muttered, frowning in exasperation. "You always act so impulsively and just do whatever you please."

"If I did whatever I pleased, you certainly wouldn't be standing there with your clothes still on," Sasuke snapped, stirring the contents in the pot angrily, wood hitting metal loudly. "You have no right to talk to me about my attitude, Itachi, because I've been insanely nice to you in spite of your stupid..."

"Please," Itachi begged, pinching the bridge of his nose, with his index and thumb. "You have just arrived, and I  _did_ miss you, so let's not argue for once and just..."

"Whatever," Sasuke groaned, irritably. "Whatever you say, whatever you want. I'm sleeping over, just so you know."

Another sigh escaped his lips and Itachi ran a hand through his loose long hair – sometimes, it was best if he didn't argue with Sasuke at all, because it wouldn't lead them nowhere; never had, never would, even if the other thought otherwise. There was no future for them, no prospects of simplicity and brightness, therefore, no happiness. Something so devastatingly wrong could never feel right. That was what he believed.

"Suit yourself."

TBC...


	2. Part II

 

**Unmei no Koe (The Voice of Fate)**

**Part II**

  
  
Even though most writers worked from home, Itachi personally didn't like mixing up his job with his personal life, so he had rented a small office in the center of the city. For him, that sort of discipline was very important.  
  
His best friend and editor, Hoshigaki Kisame, often helped him with work, but he was a busy man, so usually, it was Sasuke who often played the part of his personal assistant whenever he wasn't busy with his own work. Sasuke ran his errands, sent his e-mails for him, copied the drafts Itachi wrote on his notebook to the laptop, and sometimes, Itachi dictated his plot and Sasuke typed it for him.  
  
Although Sasuke knew Itachi could take perfect care of himself, he was always making sure he took care of him in his own way, basically doing everything he could so Itachi didn't have to overwork himself. While Itachi appreciated it and found it endearing, Sasuke's life was all about his own work and about Itachi, and that tore at the older one's heart, even if Sasuke just wanted the best for him. It had been that way for years, and he knew Sasuke's competence couldn't be matched, but he wanted his precious person to be able to live his life and not worry so much about him.  
  
That's why, for the first time in twelve years of being a best-selling author, he decided to find himself a personal assistant.  
  
After contacting Kisame about it, his friend had efficiently taken care of everything, and on the next day, he already had a solid list of candidates ready to be interviewed by Itachi himself.  
  
"My choices were based on the energy they transmitted and on their writing skills," Kisame had informed Itachi in his brute but proficient way. "Only two of them actually graduated in something related to literature and such, but everyone seemed eager to work hard. There's six candidates, so hopefully one of them suits your tastes."  
  
In that same afternoon, Itachi and Kisame held the interviews in the office.  
  
There were four women and two men. Two of the women already had enough experience on similar jobs and seemed very professional. However, one of them knew nothing of his work, and the other said she didn't exactly like his books. While Itachi didn't condemn it, he seriously thought that it would be better if he could work with someone who understood what he was about. Then, there was another girl who sounded very shy and was applying for her first job. She wanted to become a writer and was a fan of him, so she wanted to be able to assist him and, if possible, to be guided by him.   
Itachi thought she was adorable and she sounded vexingly humble, which might be a good thing for the time being. However, she lacked the kind of personality he was looking for.  
  
And then, the first of the two male candidates entered. Kisame opened the door to the corridor and called out the name 'Uzumaki Naruto'.  
  
The strangest feeling invaded Itachi's stomach as the person entered the office. His steps were firm but casual, relaxed, and at once, the invisible heaviness that filled the room seemed to be sucked in, lightened by the aura of that single human being.  
  
It was inexplicable, and probably only someone with such a sensible perception as Itachi could feel it.  
  
Kisame closed the door as the man came closer, and Itachi, who was already standing up from having said his goodbyes to the previous candidate, stood still, listening as the steps came closer and came to halt in front of his desk.  
  
"Uchiha-sensei," the man said, and by the sound of it, he was smiling. "It's an honor to meet you."  
  
Itachi's muscles tensed reflexively as his eyes stared ahead, in the direction from which the voice came from.  
  
For a brief moment, he was caught off guard as an abrupt sense of recognition struck him. The tone used had been one of politeness, definitely a lot different from the loud, obnoxious one he recalled from a few days previously, but there was no mistaking it – it was the same voice he had come across at the train station, the one that had haunted and inspired him until then.  
  
A wave of warmth filled Itachi's stomach as his heart skipped a few beats. Even though he didn't believe in fate, he had to admit to himself that some things – coincidences – sometimes couldn't be explained by a logical mind alone.  
  
He quickly regained his composure, allowing a small smile to grace his lips.  
  
"Uzumaki-san," he said, with equal politeness, offering his hand cordially – which the young man shook with vigor – before gesturing towards the chair he knew to be in front of his large desk. "Please, do have a seat."  
  
"Yes, thank you!" the man exclaimed with obvious satisfaction. The sound of rustling clothes could be heard, followed by the clumsy screech of a chair being dragged backwards. "And thank you for this opportunity."  
  
"Not at all," Itachi replied, a bit overwhelmed by the electric energy emanating from the restless person in front of him, sitting down as well as the chair screeched once more, an indication that the man was adjusting himself in his seat. "Now, Uzumaki-san…"  
  
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but can I ask you a question?"  
  
Itachi's eyebrows rose, and he heard Kisame move to stand behind his chair, an imposing figure who was probably already looking down at the candidate.  
  
"Go ahead." Itachi encouraged.  
  
"Are you blind?"  
  
In his ears, Itachi could hear Kisame's muscles stiffening.  
  
"I'm sorry, Itachi, he wasn't this blunt when I first interviewed him," the man said, through gritted teeth. "Maybe it was a bad idea to have selected him after all."  
  
"Heh? I didn't mean to be rude!" Naruto said apologetically with urgency. "It's just…I mean, you have these really intense eyes, so I didn't really notice it at first, but…I mean, I didn't mean anything offensive by asking, I was just really surprised…"  
  
Itachi raised one hand, effectively silencing Naruto's highly amusing burst of explanations. "It is perfectly alright, I'm not offended." He leaned back in his chair and smiled a bit, staring straight into the spot where he was sure Naruto was. "I am, indeed, blind, but it's not an important issue for me, so hopefully, it won't be an issue for you?"  
  
"Oh, no, not at all!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'm a really big fan of your work, so that only brings my admiration to a whole new level."  
  
Itachi's smile grew at the man's raw honesty. Was he for real? The person whose voice had chased after him like some decadent nightmare also happened to be a fan of him. Of course, this could also be a strategy for him to win points, but still, there was something about the timbre he was using that was very genuine. It was intoxicating.  
  
"So, Uzumaki-san, tell me a little about yourself."  
  
Naruto shifted in his seat.  
  
"Well, I am 24 years old," he began, his carefree words coming out easily. "Right now I'm working at a five star restaurant not too far from here. I finished high school, but recently I've been thinking about going to college, only I can't really afford it at the moment since I live by myself; that's why I need a second job."  
  
"It is quite impressive that you are willing to work that hard," Itachi commented softly. "Also, very ambitious. It's not easy, having two jobs."  
  
"I've done it before," Naruto stated simply. "I just slacked off a bit because the money I make at the restaurant is enough to pay my bills. It's just not enough to cover for the college fees."  
  
"I see," said the Uchiha, with a light nod. "Why did this particular job offer appeal you?"  
  
Naruto seemed thoughtful for a while.  
  
"Well, being someone's assistant sounds easy," he said honestly. "I like to help people and be useful, so I thought it might suit me. Also, I was really excited when Hoshigaki-san told me to write something. I mean, when I was in high school, my teachers always told me my grammar was good, but, you know, even though I do like to read and write, I don't really think I have the imagination to write professionally, so I kind of think that it would be awesome if I could be the hand behind someone else's genius. Now that I know about you, this job offer makes a lot more sense."  
  
Naruto let out a loud, slightly nervous laugh that caused Kisame to snort.  
  
"Are you excited about this position?" Itachi asked, curiously.  
  
"Yeah," Naruto confirmed, and Itachi perceived the exuberant nod coming from him. "I mean, I've read all your books! They’re novels, but not really like any other novels out there. I really love how you aren't afraid to bring up uncommon topics and stuff. I have an autographed copy of 'Reaching Through' that a friend of mine got for me for my birthday. I was really happy."  
  
There was something about Naruto's voice that overflowed with transparency, his feelings reaching out to stroke Itachi's very core and providing the strangest feeling of accomplishment he had ever felt.  
  
The person who he had been obsessing over, over the few days was a lot plainer than he had ever imagined, but at the same time, something about him, his straightforwardness and his conviction was very different from everybody else he knew.  
  
Naruto reminded him of Sasuke, even though he could tell they were as different from each other as day was from night, and maybe that was what had awakened his interest in him in the first place.  
  
All of a sudden, he was possessed by the urge to reach out and touch Naruto's face – he wanted to see what he was like – but quickly controlled himself.  
  
"Well, I am happy that you seem to have a good grasp of what I do," Itachi replied in approval, trying to will the pang of his intellectual craving towards that person away. He had to be rational, he couldn't just hire Naruto out of the blue, and he might as well be an incompetent, no matter how much his very existence inspired Itachi. "What I need right now is someone who can help me, mainly with work. I am highly self-sufficient, but I do need someone to bring shape to my ideas and the words I scribble down. You will need to send e-mails for me, run errands for me and so on. I expect my assistant to be highly professional, punctual and, most of all, decent. If you try to plagiarize my work, I will bring you down in the worst possible way."  
  
"Your style is very unique, I doubt anyone could try to plagiarize it and get away with it," Naruto said between chuckles. "But I appreciate the polite threat."  
  
Itachi couldn't help the smirk that formed in his lips.  
  
"What is your availability?"  
  
"Say the word and I'll be there."  
  
He really liked Naruto's promptitude and determination, even if he was the most inexperienced person he would interview that day.  
  
"You really liked this one, I can tell." Kisame observed smugly, once Naruto had left.  
  
Itachi didn't waste time denying it, but while a part of him was screaming for him to just hire Naruto, another, more rational part of him told him that he should be impartial and interview the rest of the candidates, just to make sure he wasn't making a huge mistake. He was always professional, and he would remain so, even if Naruto's reappearance in his life had been the highlight of his week.  
  
"Just send the next one in."

 

 

oOo

  
It was already nightfall when Itachi finished his last interview. In the end, even if he had tried to push Naruto to a corner inside his mind and forced himself to be impartial, none of the candidates had transmitted that same energy, and none seemed to connect with him as much as Naruto had. Also, none of them had been so heartbreakingly honest in their will to work with him, and Itachi had been forced to believe that Naruto would, indeed, do his best as his assistant.  
  
As it was, he had picked Naruto for his assistant and asked Kisame to call the young man to give him the news and tell him to show up at work the following day at nine in the morning.  
  
Even though some deep, devious part of him felt immensely happy about the prospect of having Naruto work for him, another part told him that he was being selfish. Then, there was yet another part that felt unavoidably guilty in Sasuke's behalf. Sasuke was his muse, and so was Naruto, and even if in a different context, it felt to Itachi like he was betraying Sasuke by denying his presence and allowing his other muse to be so close to him.  
  
Because, as a muse, Sasuke was like his intellectual lover inside the holy sanctuary that he had claimed in Itachi's mind.  
Moved by these disturbing thoughts of guilt, Itachi was compelled to go to Sasuke's place, and he was thankful that Kisame had offered to drive him there since he felt exhausted.  
  
Just like Sasuke had a copy of his house keys, he also held in his possession a copy of Sasuke's apartment keys.  
  
As soon as he got inside, he recognized the tune of The Waterboys,  _The Big Music_ song playing, coming from the living room. He closed the door behind him and shoved the keys inside the pocket of his jacket before removing it and hanging it in the coat hanger on the wall to his right. He took off his shoes and, with his toes, felt the floor in search of available slippers. As soon as he found the familiar pair, he put them on and climbed the single step out of the  _genkan_. The routine embed into his brain, he turned to the left, walked three steps and then turned to the right, entering the living room.  
  
The weight of Sasuke's stare sent a shiver down his spine, and yet, Itachi didn't falter as he took four and half steps forward before twisting his body to the right, bending over a bit and feeling the air around him, his hands connecting with the arm of the large sofa. He moved them to the seat and felt something that he was sure was Sasuke's ankle, so he pushed it aside before sitting down.  
  
The song changed;  _The Whole of the Moon_  was now playing, but neither said anything. Sasuke's gaze felt angry and hurt, and when he broke the silence between them, his voice was cold.  
  
"I don't understand you at all," he said furiously. "You want to push me away that badly?"  
  
"I don't want to push you away," Itachi contradicted, looking in Sasuke's direction. "I just think it's time for you to understand that you can't waste your time with me, now that you have your own goals and your career. You don't have to take care of me. You should live your life; you deserve it."  
  
"When did I ever complain about helping you?" Sasuke bellowed, heatedly. "When did I ever say that I wanted to live differently?"  
  
"You didn't, but I can't allow you to let yourself be dragged by me; by my career." Itachi reached out and put his hand on the same ankle he had pushed out of his way. "Try to understand. I'm not going anywhere, Sasuke. I just think you should…release yourself from me; from this life you have accustomed yourself to and devote your existence to  _you_ , to your personal growth. You have to see things clearly and get it through your head that you can't take care of your career and mine. Soon you will become famous and you won't have time, and…"  
  
"You can't make those choices for me," Sasuke hissed, moving his ankle away from the touch. "You have no right to tell me what I should and should not do, and you certainly have no right to tell me how to live my life."  
  
"Sasuke…" Itachi hissed back, his patience starting to wear thin.  
  
"You just want me to hate you," Sasuke mumbled, in a whisper. "But it's not going to happen, no matter what you do."  
  
"I would die if you ever hated me," the older Uchiha muttered, truthfully. "I just..."  
  
"Save it."  
  
Itachi sighed, feeling immensely tired all of a sudden.  
  
"I just wanted to check up on you," he ended up saying, tonelessly, getting up and staring into the space he couldn't see. "I have already chosen an assistant, you can drop by the office any time you want to meet him."  
  
Sasuke didn't answer, and Itachi didn't press the issue any further. Things might change between them from now on, but Sasuke wouldn't just walk away from him because the bond they shared was far too strong. Still, maybe, just maybe, Sasuke could finally find it within himself to move on. The thought was painful, even if it was hard for Itachi to acknowledge it. After all, they had been there for each other since forever, and now Sasuke's place in that part of his life would be taken by some bewitching stranger. They would both move on in their own way, so it would all be fine. Things would be fine, sooner or later.  
  
"Good night, Sasuke." Itachi said, offering a small, way too formal bow in his brother's direction before making his way out of the apartment.

 

 

oOo

  
Naruto's energy was palpable from the very moment he walked into the office the next morning. A natural hard worker, he was always ready to learn more and to improve himself, which was something Itachi appreciated, especially because he was an extremely fast learner. His humbleness led him to always tell Itachi if he wasn't understanding something or if a task was unknown to him. If there was a word he didn't know how to write, Itachi would spell it out for him and he wouldn't forget about it ever again. He was very fast and efficient as far as running errands went. The thing Itachi liked the most about him was his constant good-mood; his presence was refreshing, he was a good conversationalist – his mind was very open and there were no boundaries to the topics they discussed – and he always knew the right thing to say or do when Itachi's mood started to sour, or when stress started to accumulate. Even if Naruto was very different from Sasuke's quiet and pro-active demeanor, Itachi was actually kind of thankful for having someone who managed to turn his mind from unwanted worries or bad thoughts.  
He could almost say that he and Naruto had become friends, because they got along immensely well. As a fan, Naruto often fan-boyed about Itachi's texts, and they would spend hours ranting to each other about plots and issues spoken about in his books, which was highly invigorating because Naruto understood him, understood his train of thought like no else before. Well, Sasuke understood him, too, but they didn't really talk about the contents of his texts because doing so would probably bring unwanted topics between them.  
  
Naruto would sometimes bring lunch for the both of them, or call him on his mobile phone to ask if he needed something, even outside of his working hours. The young man still worked at the restaurant during the night, so it amazed Itachi at how absurdly energetic he always was.  
  
Still, no matter how well they got along, Itachi had yet to know what Naruto looked like. Considering he was a blind man, surely Naruto would understand if he wanted to 'meet' him properly, but at the same time, asking such a thing of him felt...really weird. Also, Naruto inspired his most colorful phrases, and on a certain level, Itachi feared that something might change in him – in the absurd vision of pureness that was Naruto – if he felt how he looked.  
  
Sasuke had yet to come to his office to meet Naruto – not that he wanted to – but they saw each other often and had dinner at each other's places frequently, as per usual. Even though his younger brother was still hurt to have been replaced by some loud stranger, just as Itachi had predicted, Sasuke cared too much to simply walk away, even if he did, indeed, devote more of his time to his work and social life, or so he thought.  
  
Naruto inspired Itachi, who was now writing a new character for one of his books based on him. There were still some Sasuke elements in there, which was unavoidable, but Itachi was quickly falling in love with his new plot, where two of his greatest inspirations came together so nicely and consistently.  
  
In an odd, respectable way, he was enamored with Naruto and had long since given up on believing that the young man was an obsession he would soon get rid of. People like him, just like Sasuke himself, weren't easy to forget.  
  
He often wondered if Naruto realized his influence in his writing and if Sasuke had noticed the brighter, more cheerful tone to his phrases and issues. If either of them did, they kept silent, and Itachi was grateful for it, albeit curious of their thoughts.  
  
"I'm always amazed at the way you can write down things on a paper and not overlap the words," Naruto complimented one afternoon, on the third month of them working together. "I mean, it's like you see imaginary lines, or something."  
  
Itachi smirked, bringing a cup of coffee to his lips, "That's because I do."  
  
He felt Naruto's head shoot upwards to look at him from across the desk, moving a bit to the side to see him over the laptop screen.  
  
"But it's weird," the young man said thoughtfully. "You read in brail, but you write like a normal person."  
  
"Well, I can't really explain it since it was my mother who taught me how to write even before I went to the primary school," Itachi said, smiling at the memory. "She would kind of direct the pencil in my hand and let me feel the characters that formed the Japanese calligraphy. But it was Sasuke who actually used the same method to teach me the alphabet so I could write in English. I mean, I knew how to speak, but I had no idea what the letters they used were like."  
  
Naruto was silent for a while, his gaze fixed on Itachi so intense it was a little disconcerting.  
  
"Sasuke…" he mumbled, curiously. "Your younger brother?"  
  
Itachi smiled, setting the cup down.  
  
"Yes," he nodded. "He was always very patient with me. My whole family was, actually. They never wanted me to feel inferior just because I was blind; they wanted to show me that I could be as brilliant as anyone else. I most certainly have no complaints about my upbringing."  
  
Naruto sighed.  
  
"You really are amazing," he huffed. "Seriously, I'm fascinated at how well you have adapted yourself to the normal life. Most people aren't as disciplined and meticulous as you are, not even being able to see."  
  
"Some of it might just be a part of my personality," Itachi admitted, before sipping his coffee. "I like organization and perfection. I need it, of course, otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to be so nimble on my own as I am."  
  
Naruto made a noise with the back of his throat.  
  
"Itachi-san," he muttered, sounding terribly shy all of a sudden. "I have a confession to make."  
  
Itachi's eyebrows rose, and he set down his mug with extreme care over the napkin that Naruto had placed on the glassy surface of the desk before him.  
  
"This is kind of embarrassing, but I really respect you and your work, so don't think badly of me, okay?" the young man begged. "I saw you once on a train station. I mean, there is a picture of you in every one of your books, so I kind of recognized you at first glance. You know when you see someone famous and you become hysterical even though you want to look cool?"  
  
Itachi cleared his throat, his features relaxing and becoming more serious.  
  
"Sorry, that has never happened to me," he said.  
  
"Right, of course not," Naruto replied as if scolding himself for not having thought about how obvious that was. "Anyway, l remember that I started talking really loudly after spotting you, and I had this stupid subconscious hope that you'd notice me and look my way. It's a stupid thing, like being in a concert and hoping that the singer will catch you eye." He snorted at himself. "Well, you did look at me, but you didn't see me."  
  
He stopped talking for a while. Itachi was very still, and even though he did look calm, his body was tense with surprise and a light awkwardness. "When I saw you at the interview, I was really heartbroken," Naruto proceeded, clicking the laptop lid shut. "Because my dreams had been so thoroughly shattered. One of the people I admire looks at me but doesn't see me, and there I was, thinking we had looked at each other for a while. I'm not a stalker or anything, it's just…I don't know, it's really stupid."  
  
Itachi swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry.  
  
"You are telling me this because…?"  
  
"I don't know," Naruto admitted, the hint of a smile gracing his voice. "I guess I just wanted you to know that we had met before or something. Not really met, but…"  
  
"Can I touch your face?" the question had left Itachi's mouth before he could stop it, so straightforward that he heard Naruto jump slightly in surprise.  
  
There was a moment of tension and hesitation, the air thick between them, filled with anticipation.  
  
The sound of Naruto releasing a relieved, yet shaky breath filled the silent room.  
  
"Fuck, I thought you'd never ask!" he blurted out excitedly, causing Itachi's pulse to speed up a little in eagerness, his friend's words confusing him, but not nearly enough to turn him away from the opportunity of  _seeing_  Naruto.  
  
"Come closer, then," he instructed in a tone that was thankfully assertive and composed, getting up and gesturing for Naruto to imitate him. The chair in front of him screeched backwards, the massive presence of Naruto's corporeal form leaning over his desk a heavy, consistent reality palpable to Itachi's senses.  
  
Both his hands reached out, slowly feeling the air around him so he could find the exact location of Naruto's head, but before he could do it on his own, fingers encircled is wrists and directed him.  
  
Itachi's fingertips connected with something solid and soft, the sensation creating small jolts of electricity that ran up his arms, and only then did he realize that Naruto's face was right in front of him.  
  
"Do whatever you want." Naruto whispered with encouraging gentleness, releasing his wrists, breath hitting Itachi's face lightly, alerting him of the scent of coffee and something sweet. He could also smell peach scented shampoo and cologne, and it made his head feel unavoidably light.  
  
Itachi exhaled and allowed his fingertips to feel the face beneath them, identifying defined cheekbones. The skin was soft there, so he moved his fingers downwards, to the cheeks, immediately finding three parallel salient lines in each of them like…whisker marks?  
  
 _Scars?_  he wondered curiously, rubbing his thumbs over the lines, evaluating them. They felt like veins, but smoother, he supposed.  
  
"Birth marks," Naruto answered softly, as if he had just read his thoughts. "They look like scars, but I was born with them. I hope they don't freak you out."  
  
"They don't," Itachi muttered, trying to conceal his fascination. "I think they give you charisma."  
  
Naruto chuckled. Itachi proceeded his exploration, fingers of the left hand moving down once more to touch the mouth – medium sized, lips full but symmetric, a little dry – while his right hand moved upwards, to Naruto's eye zone.  
  
Naruto's eyelids fluttered shut, long eyelashes tickling the tips of his fingers. He had big eyes, Itachi noticed, a lot less narrowed than the average Japanese person, and the shape of them, along with the fine but thick eyebrows seemed to leave room for many emotions to show through.  
  
Naruto licked his dry lips, the gesture causing his tongue to flicker over Itachi's thumb. The action took him by surprise, but Naruto didn't comment on it, so Itachi opted to pretend that he hadn't noticed.  
  
"What do you think the color of my eyes is?" his assistant asked easily, casually even though he was still whispering.  
  
"I don't know what a color is like," Itachi explained, moving both his hands to Naruto hair and feeling the soft, yet wild strands of it. It was cut not too short, and he had a rebel fringe that sometimes fell to his eyes, Itachi guessed. "I associate colors with…feelings, sensations, I suppose."  
  
"So, what do you associate my eyes with?"  
  
Naruto's hair felt good. It felt good to just brush his fingers easily through it like this.  
  
"I'm not sure," he mused, trying to think. "Like…the wind? A soft breeze on a summer day, I suppose. Something bright, clear."  
  
Naruto's cackle was almost seductive.  
  
"And my hair?" he pressed on.  
  
"The sun," he answered reflexively "Also something bright, warm…light."  
  
"Very good," the praise sounded both teasing and impressed.  
  
Itachi's hands finally moved down again to feel Naruto's jaw and chin.  
  
The  _Kami_  help him, Naruto was good-looking, and the realization made him feel both overly enthusiastic and fatigued.  
  
Only Sasuke had such good-looking lines in his face, so Naruto was, without a doubt, the second most handsome person he had ever 'seen', and it had excited him.  
  
It just had to be his curse that his second muse had to be like this.  
  
He was seriously beginning to think that he might be in serious trouble.  
  
"You're a handsome person," he said plainly, dropping his hands and straightening his back, feeling suddenly uncomfortable.  
  
"Thank you," Naruto said jovially, moving away as well. "I am, like, the complete opposite of you."  
  
"What do you mean?" the Uchiha inquired, sitting back down and holding in the groan that threatened to leave him.  
  
"You got it right that I have light colored hair and eyes," Naruto replied, slumping back into his own chair. "But you have the darkest eyes and hair I have ever seen."  
  
The smile Itachi offered him was a bit forced.  
  
"Is that a bad thing?"  
  
"No," Naruto mumbled, matter-of-factly. "Quite the contrary, you are probably the most attractive person I have ever met."  
  
Not for the first time that day, the silence that stretched between them was awkward, but now, it was mostly on Itachi's part.  
  
He knew nothing about Naruto's sexual preferences, but by their conversations and the way he always spoke so passionately of Itachi's gay themed novels had lead the writer to believe that Naruto might be, at least, bisexual; or maybe he was just a very, very open-minded straight man?  
  
"Naruto," he said, carefully. "Are you hitting on me?"  
  
Naruto didn't reply, but the secret, mischievous smirk he threw at him was so perceptible by Itachi's senses that he would've shivered from head to toe in the most undignified way if he wasn't as in control of his own body as he was.  
  
Yes, fate was playing pranks on him, he was sure.  
  
He was thoroughly screwed.  
  
TBC...


	3. Part III

 

** Unmei no Koe**

** Part III **

  
Five months after having Naruto as his assistant, the two co-workers had decided to take a break from work and go outside to enjoy the first warm rays of spring sun and take a stroll on the nearest public park.  
  
Kisame had already taken Itachi’s new novel to the publishing house, and now it was only a matter of days before things started to become unreal once more and the editing proposals began. If the writer was lucky, he wouldn’t have to change that many things about the book, although he had a feeling that things would be different this time. After all, for once he had presented a light plot that, even if filled with drama between the main characters throughout the story, had a nice, fluid happy ending. The publisher would be thrilled, confused and, surely, many questions would be asked.  
  
Until then, though, Itachi felt that he and Naruto could afford to finally relax for a while.  
  
It was a nice, windless sunny day, and the two were walking calmly side by side as they lazily licked the ice creams that the younger one had purposefully bought for them. Itachi had left his cane back at the office since Naruto had insisted that he didn’t need it, which meant that he was currently being guided by the young man himself, arm loosely linked with his.  
  
The peacefulness of the scene they were living seemed oddly out of place considering how stressful the last couple of months had been.   
  
Sasuke, who worked mainly inside of Japan, had been forced by work to travel once more. He was visiting China this time; he had been away for two weeks already, and it seemed like he didn’t know when he was coming back.  
  
Itachi had asked Naruto to send the finished manuscript to him by e-mail, but Sasuke had yet to offer a reply with his opinion.   
  
Even if Naruto said that he loved the book and that he was sure it was going to be a success, Itachi wanted to know his brother’s thoughts on the finished piece. He had, of course, been reading a few drafts up until then, but had, for some reason, refused to comment on them, and Itachi felt a bit nervous about it.  
  
Sasuke had always respected his work, offering a few tips here and there, sometimes complaining about this and that, and he was generally very – sometimes cruelly so – straightforward, even if the older Uchiha did know that he truly loved his work.   
  
Itachi didn’t talk about Sasuke often, and still, for some reason, Naruto genuinely wanted to meet his brother and had actually e-mailed him about it, but the younger Uchiha hadn’t budged.  
  
During the time he had been working with Naruto, Itachi had often wondered about himself and what was the real reason for this new drive concerning his writing. Yes, he was strongly influenced by Naruto’s brightness along with his feelings for Sasuke, but it still confused him how strangely such divergent feelings inside himself had come together so nicely. This last book had been some sort of Ying Yang for him, in a way, and in spite of the lighter tone to it, after finishing it, Itachi realized that he had not only rejoiced in the new light in his life, but had also mourned the place where his brother had once been.  
  
It was weird, to say the least, to feel so thoroughly accomplished and simultaneously guilty.   
  
It wasn’t exactly a bad thing, missing Sasuke’s constant presence and yet basking in Naruto’s cheery consolation. Sasuke was there, of course, just…differently. Naruto hadn’t been enough for Itachi to let go of his feelings, but he made it more bearable.  
  
He felt himself becoming closer to Naruto from day to day. They had the kind of easygoing, comfortable relationship that Itachi never allowed himself to have with people outside of his family. This fact was something new to him, but something not at all unpleasant. Naruto was a sociable, lovable kind of person who always did his best no matter what. He knew how to deal with people, and in spite of his big mouth, and sometimes extreme bluntness, his presence was a constant source of relief.  
  
Itachi knew, somewhere deep inside of him, that he was heartbreakingly infatuated with Naruto’s outgoing personality. He also knew, even if his assistant was low profiled about it, that Naruto harbored some form of crush on him.   
  
Itachi often thought about himself and about what ‘moving on’ meant to him. Sometimes he wondered if Naruto might be his key to ‘moving on’ because, in the end, he had shown up in his life like fate had purposefully placed him there. Sasuke was never his physical lover, and sometimes Itachi did have the need to be intimate with someone. Sex wasn’t exactly an issue for him, but when he seriously considered it, being in a relationship with someone was. It wasn’t something he knew how to explain, not even to himself.  
  
“Do you have someone precious to you, Naruto?” Itachi inquired, absently licking his lemon ice cream.   
  
“All of my friends are precious to me.” Naruto said in a heartbeat, making Itachi roll his eyes.  
  
“That’s not what I mean.”  
  
“Huh? You mean, like, a lover?" Naruto replied, sounding surprised at the question.  
  
“Something like that.”  
  
"Nah."  
  
Itachi huffed sarcastically.  
  
"A social whore like yourself? I am appalled."  
  
"I'm actually pretty picky about who I date," Naruto defended, his mouth full of his ice cream before swallowing. "I don't know, I guess I need to feel more than a light empathy, you know? We really have to...click, instantly, I guess. Why do you ask?"  
  
Itachi all but shrugged.  
  
“Just curious, I suppose.”  
  
Naruto made a sound with the back of his throat.  
  
“But you do have someone like that in your life,” he noted perceptively, the sentence not a question.  
  
The blind man smiled ever so slightly, the action making him feel suddenly sour.  
  
“What gave me away?”  
  
“Your books,” Naruto answered without hesitance. “In every single one of them, no matter the context, there is this frustrated, sad aura of a love that is doomed or something like that.”  
  
“How very insightful of you.” Itachi mumbled. Of course Naruto would have noticed, only now he was bolder in pointing such things out. “Is there a trash can around? I’m done.”  
  
“But you haven’t finished your ice cream yet!” Naruto exclaimed, sounding horrified, and Itachi knew, for a fact, that Naruto was highly against wasting food. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to eat anymore, and he didn’t like sweet things to begin with. “Shit. Just hold on to it for a second.”  
  
Naruto fell silent for a while as they continued walking. The noises of him hurriedly slurping the rest of his ice cream and stuffing the cookie cone inside his mouth made Itachi chuckle in amusement and shake his head from side to side. Then, Naruto snatched the ice cream from his hand and started to promptly eat it.  
  
“You’re a weird person,” Itachi observed, fondly.  
  
“Blegh…”  
  
“Brat.”  
  
The sound of nature around them was soothing, as well as the warmth of the sun and the casual chatter of people going by around them.   
  
“Nee, Itachi…” Naruto called softly. “I don’t want to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong, but…you do know that I’m…well…interested in you, right?”  
  
Itachi didn’t reply immediately, unseeing eyes looking ahead at the path he couldn’t see. The confession didn’t take him by surprise, of course, even if it did make his heart beat a tiny bit faster without really overwhelming him, probably because he was comfortable enough around Naruto to know that, no matter what he said, things wouldn’t change between them.  
  
“You know I don’t like mixing work with pleasure,” he said simply, as if talking about the lovely weather. “Not that I’m not flattered or anything.”  
  
Naruto slurped noisily on the ice cream, his intense gaze almost piecing Itachi’s temple.  
  
“You’re not dating anyone, are you?” he inquired carefully.  
  
“No, I am not.”  
  
“And you don’t want to.”  
  
The affirmation seemed a little forlorn to Itachi, but he found it prudent to not pull the rope on the young man’s feelings.  
  
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” the writer explained, heaving a sigh. “It’s more like I can’t bring myself to be in a relationship, for now. To be honest, I don’t think my heart is ready to accept someone else, yet.”  
  
It was the most honest answer he could give, even though Itachi still felt that something wasn’t quite right about it. He wanted a relationship, eventually, and it wasn’t like he didn’t feel a bit excited about the prospect of Naruto having an interest in him, it was just…  
  
He felt guilty and he didn’t want to hurt Sasuke by immersing himself into something as serious as a relationship with someone else. It was an idiotic train of thought, he knew, because neither he nor Sasuke had anything to do each other’s love life, and neither was anything happening between them for them to have to feel guilty about anything at all.   
  
Still, just thinking about giving himself – his heart– to someone else made Itachi’s stomach flip over in despair. He couldn’t do that to Sasuke, not before his brother himself had found someone else to focus his interest on.  
  
“Huh, it must’ve hit you hard,” Naruto commented, his tone changing to a thoughtful one. “What are you ready for, then?”  
  
“Sex.”  
  
Their walk was abruptly interrupted as Naruto came to a halt while promptly choking, probably on ice cream, or his own saliva. Itachi couldn’t help but laugh at Naruto’s shocked reaction, letting go of his arm to pat his bended back firmly, yet condescendingly.  
  
“There, there…” he teased. “I had no idea that you’d be this sensitive. I forgot you’re only 24.”  
  
Naruto coughed a few times and sniffed before straightening up.  
  
“That’s not it!” he protested, elbowing Itachi’s side without force. “Are you serious? You won’t date but you’ll have casual sex?”  
  
“Why not?” Itachi inquired, grabbing hold of Naruto’s arm once more as they resumed their walk.  
  
“So, if I were to ask you to have sex with me, you’d do it?”  
  
“That depends,” the older one replied, smiling mischievously as he squeezed Naruto’s arm with affection. “As I said, no mixing business with pleasure, and you are my employee. But, if you could be mature enough to separate the two, and promise me that you wouldn’t be all emotional about it, yes. However, I would fire you on the spot if you said something like ‘call me’, or ‘let’s go on a date’.”  
  
Naruto laughed at that.  
  
“That’s harsh!” he accused.  
  
“It’s my only offer, Naruto.”  
  
Naruto’s laughter subsided considerably at that. A not so uncomfortable quietude settled between them during which Naruto finished the ice cream without saying another word, and after a few minutes of companionable silence, they went to sit down side by side on one of the benches that, according to Naruto, was near a fountain, which Itachi appreciated, since he liked to listen to the sound of water running. He could hear children playing nearby, too.  
  
After a while, he felt something heavy on his shoulder, Naruto’s solft hair tickling his jaw.  
  
“I think we’re in a lousy situation, then,” Naruto whispered seriously. One of his hands moved to be placed upon Itachi’s own hand over his leg. “I look like a social whore, but I guess I’m not that open minded. I know I wouldn’t be able to be mature at all. I mean, if you and I were to be in a relationship, I would be able to separate it from work, but when it comes to sex, as much as it pains me to admit, I can’t really just…do it without the promise of something else involved.”  
  
Itachi made an acquiescent sound, having already been expecting it. In a way, he was sure Naruto had already been expecting his answer in the first place.  
  
Naruto raised his head to look at him, his face so close to Itachi’s that the writer could feel Naruto’s soft breath on his cheek. “But, if that person didn’t exist...”  
  
“I am a hopeless case, Naruto,” Itachi interrupted, closing his eyes as he inhaled deeply, the flowery scents around him, along with Naruto’s own familiar one offering a soothing effect. “I’m nothing but trouble as far as love goes. Who knows? Maybe someday things can be different.”  
  
Naruto snorted.  
  
“Yeah, maybe” he replied, heaving a long sigh, the action causing Itachi’s bangs to billow gently. “I’ll wait for it.”  
  
Itachi smiled and turned the hand Naruto was holding upwards so he could grab it back. He gave it gentle but firm squeeze.  
  
“You won’t be able to wait that long,” he teased.  
  
Naruto’s fingers wrapped around his.  
  
“We’ll see.”  
  
It was impossible for Itachi not to feel egoistical in wishing for Naruto to be serious about it.  


 

oOo

  
The launching of Itachi’s new book had taken place in one of the biggest bookstores in Tokyo. Itachi was more than used to the organized chaos of those particular days, so it wasn’t like he wasn’t prepared for it. The interview part, in his opinion, was the easiest one, because he hardly felt intimidated by the public or the journalists, and he always knew how to answer all their – sometimes rude – questions with grace and maturity. Then, it came the part where he had to supposedly read excerpts of his book, and even though the books were also released in brail, it was easy for him to recite a few passages from memory alone, something Naruto had been highly impressed with.  
  
The worst part of it all, Itachi thought, was the autograph session, where he had to sign a never ending number of books while respecting the readers’ wishes in the words they wanted for him to write along with his autograph, not to mention he had to listen to the hysterical love confessions of some of his most devoted fans. All of this Itachi did with a smile on his face, offering kind, polite words of gratitude, just like his nature demanded of him. Nevertheless, it was impossible not to feel mentally exhausted after a while, what with so many people around him and his fellows from the publishing house surrounding him, constantly making observations and introducing him to people he had no interest in meeting.  
  
"Incredibly hot guy with scary face approaching," Naruto, who was standing by his right whispered in his ear, elbowing his arm in a somewhat excited way before directing Itachi's right hand to the bottle of water he was extending to him.  
  
Itachi sighed surreptitiously, grabbing the bottle with a thankful nod, throwing a tired smile at his assistant. Naruto liked to make positive or negative comments about the fans once in a while, just to lighten the mood, something that definitely helped to keep Itachi in good spirits.  
  
Not even five seconds went by when something fell heavily on the table in front of Itachi as he was taking a few gulps on the water.  
  
"It was the worst book you have ever written," a cool, nonchalant voice that was familiar drawled. "I feel sorry for both you and the miserable person who turned this into this sappy piece of shit. Now sign it, and make it good.”  
  
Itachi felt his heart race – it had been a while since he had listened to that voice in person, but even so,  _he_  was there,  _he_  had come to the launching. He felt his mouth twitching, desperately wanting to form the biggest smile his face could endure, but before he could do it, Naruto’s own voice rose from the incessant chattering of the place.  
  
“That is not very nice, asshole!” he bellowed, clearly offended on Itachi’s behalf. “You just bought the damn book, how can you say such mean things about it?!”  
  
Itachi was slightly taken aback at the outburst for a while before remembering that Naruto had no idea who he was speaking to. Allowing his smile to grow gradually, he felt the air beside him and grabbed the hem of Naruto’s shirt in a placating gesture.  
  
“Calm down, Naruto, he means no harm,” he said calmly, directing his eyes to the person in front of him. “I’m glad you managed to come, Sasuke.”  
  
Naruto’s body shivered from head to toe at that.  
  
“This…this person is your  _brother_?” he barked, clearly awestruck. “Are you serious?”  
  
“Right, you’re so amazed because we don’t resemble each other at all,” Sasuke huffed in spiteful sarcasm. “I can’t believe you hired a moron, Itachi.”  
  
“Hey!” Naruto bellowed, tensing defensively. “Sorry if I couldn’t relate your bastardly personality to your brother’s!”   
  
Itachi sniggered and pulled Sasuke’s book to him, opening it and immediately writing a few well-chosen words on the first page.  
  
“Now you know each other,” he said, good-humoredly, once he finished, closing the book. “I’m sorry to hear you didn’t like it,” he added, extending the book to his brother, who snatched it from him.  
  
“Whatever.”  
  
“He’s got to be a lousy judge, because the book is awesome,” Naruto mumbled, still fuming. “What the hell is his problem?”  
  
All of a sudden, Sasuke’s energy changed from confident and arrogant to also defensive.  
  
“Was I talking to  _you_  to begin with, dumbass?” he hissed, his temper rising quickly, and flaring up Naruto’s own defenses. However, before his assistant could even open his mouth, Itachi interrupted them once more, feeling somewhat amused and endeared for some reason, because this was exactly how he had predicted their meeting to be.  
  
“Calm down, brat, Sasuke was my right arm before I hired you,” he explained simply. “He knows my work like no-one else, so if he doesn’t like the book, then that means I must’ve failed somewhere.”  
  
He felt Naruto looking at him in surprise, his apparent anger subsiding considerably.  
  
“But…you’re an amazing writer…” he whispered, obviously a bit hurt at Itachi’s humbleness when Naruto had been defending him.  
  
“Sasuke, you’re going to have to move,” Kisame’s voice meddled in. “You may be the writer’s brother, but you’re still stalling the line, and we do want to get this over with as soon as possible.”  
  
“Yeah, sorry,” Sasuke said insincerely. “You, blond dumbass,” he snapped, his hand moving somewhere in front of Itachi’s face to Naruto’s direction, probably pointing at him. “You. Me. Coffee.  _Now_.”  
  
Itachi would’ve rolled his eyes in the most undignified way if he wasn’t so used to his brother’s attitude in the first place. Also, somehow it was highly interesting to see those two interacting.  
  
Naruto, predictably, acted affronted.  
  
“You don’t boss me around, Itachi’s brother or not!” he said loudly, causing even Itachi to cringe. “I’m  _working_ , and I don’t want to have no damn coffee with a bastard like you!”  
  
“It’s my only offer,” Sasuke said coolly. The sense of  _dejá vu_  seemed to have caused Naruto to still. “Itachi once told me you’d like to meet me, and I’m sick of your stupid e-mails with all those stupid smiley faces. I won’t bother making an effort twice.”  
  
At that, Naruto was left gapping.  
  
“Just go,” Itachi encouraged. “It’s fine, I have all the help I need here.”  
  
“But…”  
  
“I know he can look terrifying, but he’s all bark and no bite,” Itachi cut through the protest easily. “Besides, I’m sure you can handle him.”  
  
Naruto gulped, both in tension and frustration, but nodded.  
  
“I’ll call you later,” Sasuke said as Itachi heard him turn around.  
  
“Alright.”  
  
Itachi felt Naruto throw him a disturbed look before walking around the table and hurrying to join Sasuke, who, by the sound of it, was already walking away.  
  
The feeling of happiness that washed through Itachi was unfamiliar. He couldn’t think of something that would make him happier than to have his two most precious people in the world – his two muses – getting along. He loved them both in his own way, and to him, even though Sasuke was his real family, he felt that Naruto was also like family to him, so it would be perfect if that family became consistent. Besides, Itachi was sure that Naruto’s influence on Sasuke would be good – if his brother was receptive to him, that is.  
  
Heaving a satisfied sigh, Itachi smiled to himself as the next person approached to have his book autographed.  
  
By the time Naruto returned – an hour later – the session was over and he sounded both surprised and thoughtful, but also a bit more motivated than before.  
  
“He sure is a feisty person,” he said, when Itachi had asked him how things with Sasuke went. “But he’s really…smart. And we’re going out for dinner later tonight.”  
  
Well, the writer thought, pleasantly surprised. That had gone a lot better than he could’ve ever hoped for.  


 

oOo

  
Itachi was lured back to consciousness by someone calling his name. His hair was being stroked with gentle, yet impatient gestures. Something heavy beside him made his mattress sink. Itachi blinked several times, his brain a bit dazed from having been sleeping so heavily, and he twisted his body so he was lying on his back. Bringing a hand to his face, he rubbed it slowly.  
  
“I just came from my dinner with your assistant,” the person beside him said in a whisper –Sasuke. Itachi’s head turned to the side and his nose collided with his brother’s, making him jolt and become instantly alert. Sasuke was lying beside him on the king sized bed, his body facing him. The younger Uchiha didn’t move away in spite of Itachi’s obvious discomfort, instead remaining very still as his hand moved to rest on Itachi’s chest.   
  
Itachi’s brain turned to mush briefly – he couldn’t think about anything else apart from the fact that he knew that all he had to do was to turn his face away and he would be safe from the clutches of temptation. However, for some reason, he didn’t want to cower, and honestly, being this close to Sasuke was highly fascinating to him. Sasuke smelled of expensive cologne, and there was the scent of alcohol lingering in his breath – white wine, Itachi bet, because Sasuke loved it. Had Sasuke been his lover, it would also be very easy to just lean in and press their lips together.  
  
Itachi entertained the thought for a few seconds, like he had done so many times since that fateful day, but his most rational part was making him freeze on the spot and not move at all. He could still remember how it had felt, how much he had enjoyed it, and even today, it amazed him at how much he still wanted to live that one, single moment, just once more.  
  
But he couldn’t let twelve years of strict conviction go to waste.  
  
So he swallowed hard, breathed in and out a few times, and placed his hand over Sasuke’s on his chest, knowing his brother could feel his quick heartbeat, but not really caring about it. After all, Sasuke knew what he was to him, knew that, no matter what, it wouldn’t change.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Itachi asked, feeling Sasuke’s restlessness. “You seem upset.”  
  
“He’s really loud, and talks his mouth off like the world is going to end,” Sasuke said, between gritted teeth. “Naruto, I mean. When he laughs I feel embarrassed, and he’s not afraid of saying what is on his mind, so we argued so many times, and about so many things I can’t even remember what it was we were arguing about in the first place.” Sasuke made an unnecessarily loud noise while licking his lips, the perception of his warm tongue actually coming way too close to Itachi’s lips for comfort, and still, Itachi didn’t move away. “But he’s…an absurdly human person. He said he liked me and that he was happy that we had met; why, I have no idea. I don’t like him, he gets on my nerves.”  
  
Itachi blinked a few times, frowning slightly at Sasuke’s angry and disturbed voice.  
  
“But…” Sasuke proceeded, in a tired, low tone. “He is the person from your book. He’s important to you, I can tell, and it annoys the hell out of me. However…” Sasuke inhaled deeply, the sound resembling a sniff. “I am…kind of glad that you have someone like him by your side. A bit…resentful, because he’s way too good at replacing me, but glad.”  
  
Itachi bit his lip let out a thankful breath.  
  
“I do care about Naruto,” he admitted quietly, moving his hand slowly so his fingers could brush lightly over the back of Sasuke’s own hand. “But you are wrong in thinking that he is your replacement. I love you more than anything in the whole world, and that feeling cannot be replaced. You and he are different, Sasuke. “  
  
“But you like him,” Sasuke pressed on, mercilessly.  
  
“I do.”  
  
“Yet, you are running away from your feelings for him, just like you run away from me,” the accusation came out straightforward and crude. “Why? Why would you do that? This is your chance to move on. You need him to let go of me, so why don’t you take the chance?”  
  
Itachi swallowed hard as a heaviness settled on his heart. He grabbed Sasuke’s hand and brought it to his lips before twisting his body so he was on his side, facing Sasuke. Their foreheads came into contact, their hands still linked.  
  
“I can’t do that to you,” he whispered, barely containing the emotion in his words. “I need you to move on, first. I need you to be safe and happy with someone else before I can do it. You’re always so resilient, always so sure of your convictions towards me. I can’t break your heart, Sasuke, and I  _won’t_.”  
  
“You already do,” Sasuke mumbled coldly. “Every fucking day and every time you say 'no' to me. You know what it takes for me to be happy, you’re just too much of a coward to go ahead and give it to me. You’re not even good to yourself. It’s not as hard as you think, and our lives don’t have to be this fucking dramatic forever.”  
  
Itachi bit his lip.  
  
They had already spent hours, days,  _years_  talking about their relationship, but somehow, Itachi always felt the painful and overwhelming burst of emotions that assaulted him each time. Whenever they talked about it, they turned something that resembled a distant but vivid dream into something real, and it was intimate, intense, awkward, but  _theirs_.   
  
Itachi wished he could tell Sasuke how he really felt, what he really wanted, what he longed for when thinking about them. He could tell Sasuke that he wished they weren’t brothers, but at the same time, that would be a lie, because he loved the fact that something as strong as blood tied them together. But he couldn't say these things, couldn’t give Sasuke that joy and then shatter it all completely.  
  
It was  _wrong_ ; all of it was wrong.   
  
Yes, it would be easy, of course it would. If he did lean in and pressed his mouth to Sasuke's, he knew the other would open his lips and drink him whole, because Sasuke was no longer a child and would take as much as he could get. Itachi himself would make sure he gave him everything he had and more. Giving in would be like opening the gates of both heaven  _and_  hell.  
  
But it was  _wrong_. How would they ever make it work? How could they be a normal couple, and do things normal couples did? They wouldn't even pass by as a normal gay couple without people noticing their resemblance. What would their parents say after years gone by without either of them having a partner? And really, did Sasuke want to spend the rest of his life with a blind man? He was far too young, far too naïve, and had too many dreams yet to be fulfilled to be tied down to such a strong conviction.   
  
Itachi only wanted what was best for Sasuke. Because he wasn’t even openly gay, he could even have the chance of getting married and having kids at some point of his life, if he wished.  
  
"I’m alright, Sasuke,” Itachi whispered, planting the ghost of a kiss on Sasuke’s forehead. “All I’m saying is that you should not look back if something good comes your way. I know it sounds easier than it is, but just...try. For me. It’s been far too long, and we should end this as soon as possible.”  
  
Sasuke let out a frustrated groan but ended up nodding once, defeated - at least for now.  
  
“You fucking selfish bastard,” he accused, like a pouting child. “It always has to be the way you want it. Move over, I’m sleeping here.”  
  
Itachi nodded and moved more to the side of the bed – he had been sleeping right in the middle of it, as per usual – just as Sasuke adjusted himself and got under the covers. The younger one moved closer to Itachi, his forehead resting against his chest. Itachi tucked him in, making sure he was covered enough not catch a cold during the night and let his head fall back on the pillow. He surrounded Sasuke’s waist with his arm in a protective way, his hand rubbing Sasuke’s back with gentle, up and down movements.  
  
It reminded him of Sasuke as a child. If only things could have always stayed as simple as they were when both he and his little brother were too innocent to think about annoying things like love, life and lust.  
  
“That book…” Sasuke muttered, his voice muffled from having his face against the fabric of Itachi’s pajama top. “It’s a good book. I’m just pissed off at it.”  
  
Itachi smiled, pressing his lips to the top of Sasuke’s head, feeling the softness of hair that was said to be as black as night itself – just like Itachi’s was.  
  
“Thank you.”  


 

oOo

  
“Do you think Sasuke would accept it if I asked him to go to a concert with me?”  
  
Itachi, who had been scribbling notes on his worn out notebook, stopped his hand from the task it was doing and lifted his head up to gaze in the direction of the man sitting across from him, as per usual. The sound of Naruto typing tirelessly on the laptop filled his ears.  
  
“What kind of concert is it?” Itachi inquired carefully.  
  
“It’s a  _visual-kei_  band,” Naruto explained in a matter-of-fact-way. “I’m asking because I’ve only talked to him that one time. I mean, he’s a pianist, he plays mostly classical music, so I honestly have no clue as to what kind of music he listens to.”  
  
Itachi cleared his throat.  
  
“I’m not sure, either, but he likes music from the 80’s and 90’s,” he said, trying to identify what kind of aura the young man was transmitting but, for once, not being able to tell. “Japanese, North-American, European…but he is open-minded, maybe he wouldn’t mind going with you.”  
  
“Hum…” Naruto replied, unsurely.  
  
“What’s with the hesitant attitude?”  
  
Naruto shifted, clearly uncomfortable.  
  
“Sasuke is, like… _really_  attractive,” he admitted slowly, as the typing ceased. “Kind of like you but…different. He’s such a bastard, but really...I don’t know, I kind of like him, even though I also feel like I want to smash his face into the nearest solid surface every time he opens his mouth. I’ve been texting him, trying to be friends and whatever, but he’s an asshole. A funny…no, that’s not the word... a  _witty_ asshole, I suppose.”  
  
Itachi felt his eyebrows rising.  
  
“ _He_  texts you back?” he asked, perplexed.  
  
“Yeah, mostly to insult my intelligence; but yeah,” Naruto replied.  
  
Itachi focused on Naruto’s presence in front of him, trying to understand what was going through Naruto’s mind. It was very uncommon that Naruto was closing in on himself considering how much of an expressive, open person he was.   
  
Alright, his assistant wanted to get along with his brother, and that was fine – Itachi himself had encouraged it – but for some reason, not being able to tell what Naruto was going on about was unsettling; Itachi couldn’t read him at all.  
  
Sasuke himself had said good things about Naruto – in a dissimulated kind of way – so Itachi himself was aware that his attitude was just his stubbornness working against his taking a liking to the loud man. All in all, he was sure Naruto knew he and Sasuke were, somewhat, getting along.   
  
“Why do I have the feeling that you’re asking for my permission to see my brother?” Itachi inquired neutrally, the question finally changing Naruto’s energy to one of tension and…hope?  
  
“Maybe because I am?”  
  
Did Naruto think Itachi was going to be jealous if him for having fun with Sasuke? The thought itself was both hilarious and a little worrisome; why, Itachi couldn’t tell.   
  
All he knew was that he was having a bad feeling about it.   
  
“Naruto,” Itachi started seriously. “You can do whatever you like, and I’m not Sasuke’s boss to tell him with whom he should hang out with. I’m fine with it as long as you don’t force your presence on him. Sasuke does have a bad temper.”  
  
“I know,” Naruto confirmed, and Itachi could almost swear sensed his grimace. “Alright, I’ll ask him, then.”  
  
“You do that.”  
  
They got back to work, Naruto typing and Itachi forcing himself to go back to that same train of thought he had been in before his assistant had interrupted him but finding himself unable to. He couldn’t even remember what had been the last thing he had written.  
  
His hand was still, fingers gripping the pencil they were holding too firmly.  
  
Why did he feel so restless all of a sudden?  


 

oOo

  
A week later it was six in the morning and Itachi was already awake. For some reason, it had been hard for him to sleep recently, and he always found himself fully alert even before the sun had risen.  
  
Naruto had a big mouth, so - the  _Kami_  only knew why - he had gotten in his head that Itachi had to know everything he did in his life, tales that, for the past five days, always involved his younger brother.  
  
Apparently, on the same day Itachi and him had talked about it, Naruto had nagged Sasuke enough about them hanging out to the point where Sasuke accepted it just to shut him up, which had led the two of them to meet almost every night since then. Itachi knew where they went, but had no idea what they talked about, only that Naruto seemed a lot more positive about his relationship with his brother.  
  
Eventually, Sasuke had accepted to go with Naruto to said concert – also to shut him up, as he had claimed. They had gotten together at nightfall, and Itachi hadn’t heard from either of them since, which was, in itself, a rare occurrence since, usually, when they did socialize, it was either Naruto calling him for tips on how to deal with Sasuke, or Sasuke calling to complain about Naruto.  
  
But neither had said anything, or answered his phone calls, and it was  _six_  in the damned morning.  
  
Itachi was sitting on his sofa, smoking a cigarette. There was an ashtray resting on his lap and the television was on – he only owned one because it provided worldwide information a lot better than the radio did.  
  
His stomach was complaining loudly in need for food, but the writer didn’t feel like eating at all. He was too worried, and too restless to eat. Something unpleasant was tugging at his gut, like a bad omen, or some sort of unwelcomed premonition. He just hoped the two of them were alright. If they didn’t say anything for the next half hour he’d call Kisame – the large man had all sorts of useful contacts that would be able to find those two in a heartbeat.  
  
Just as Itachi was smashing the fifth cigarette he had smoked in the last hour on the ashtray, his mobile phone – resting on the seat next to him – rang, the familiar song alerting him that it was Sasuke. He quickly pressed the answering button and brought the phone to his ear, not without breathing in and out a few times to prevent himself from yelling questions uncalled for, because, truth be told, he shouldn’t be controlling his brother’s life, it was none of his business.  
  
However, Sasuke anticipated himself.  
  
 _“Itachi,”_  his voice was serious, just the tiniest bit slurred, and it sent chills running through Itachi’s body.  _“We kissed.”_  
  
For a moment, relief washed over him at listening to Sasuke’s healthy voice, so Itachi didn’t really associate Sasuke’s words to anything in particular. However, realization soon washed over him as he realized Sasuke was talking about Naruto.   
  
Shock froze him.  
  
“What?” was all he managed to ask, his mind a violent turmoil of thoughts that made no sense whatsoever.  
  
 _“We kissed,”_  Sasuke repeated, sounding confused at himself, but not upset.  _“I don’t know how it happened, I’m a bit drunk.”_  
  
“I can tell.” Itachi said, forcing himself to keep the cold from his voice.  
  
 _“We just…it happened. He drove me home, and we started talking about stuff until not so long ago, and then… we started sort of arguing, and there was this whole tension and just…the next thing I knew we were making out like crazy. Fuck, Itachi, I’m…”_  
  
“Don’t say you’re sorry,” Itachi cut sternly, feeling his hand shake as he rubbed his eyes with it. “It’s not your fault. I was the one who dumped him, I have nothing to do with him as far as his love life goes.”  
  
Sasuke stayed silent for a while, huffing on the other side. Itachi swallowed hard – his throat hurt.  
  
“Did you like it?” he asked.  
  
 _“I…yeah,”_ Sasuke replied, as if pissed off at himself for it.  _“It was really…I don’t know. I can’t believe this has happened. How can it be, that I’m attracted to that stupid, rude dumbass?”_  
  
Sinking his teeth in his lower lip, Itachi chose not to answer. His heart was being so fast his whole body was trembling with many emotions at the same time.  
  
He felt angry, sad, jealous, upset, remorseful, horrified, but most of all, he felt incredibly lonely, like he had just lost everything he held dear in the world. It wasn’t the case, he knew he wasn’t losing either Naruto or Sasuke, but still, he felt at loss.  
  
The sudden emptiness was the most overwhelming feeling he had ever experienced.  
  
 _“I asked him if he wanted to come over and he refused, because he wants something **serious** ,”_ Sasuke proceeded sounding miserable now.  _“I was all ready to just fuck his brains out and let it out of my system, but I…he says he likes me and I…I don’t know what it’s like. I’ve never been in a serious relationship, I’ve never felt attracted to anyone but you. It was just sex all the way and then I’d never look back at the person again. I don’t know what to do…I don’t know what I want to do.”_  
  
Itachi seemed to have licked his lips a thousand times in the last minute. His lungs hurt, his head felt like it was about to burst. He wanted to throw his mobile phone against the nearest wall and just…curl up and sulk, or cry, or just…wait until everything made sense once more.  
  
Willing himself to disappear seemed like such a good idea, too.  
  
Instead, he cleared his throat, ignoring the stinging ache in his chest.  
  
“It’s alright,” he said, summoning his most neutral, parental-like tone, even though he felt his voice shake ever so slightly. “You just need some rest, Sasuke. Everything happens for a reason, and if Naruto likes you, and you feel something for him, too, I’m sure you’ll understand exactly what you want.”  
  
 _“I guess,”_ Sasuke said, with a sigh.  _“Still, couldn’t we have had sex all the same, and **then**  think about feelings and all that serious shit? I’m so fucking sick of feelings…”_  
  
“Just go to sleep,” Itachi mumbled, dropping his hand and keeping his eyes closed. “Call me when you wake up, and make sure you’re sober. I’ll help you figure things out.”  
  
 _“Alright,”_  Sasuke agreed, in a surprisingly obedient way.  _“You’re a good person, you know that?”_  
  
 _I wish I wasn’t._  
  
“So are you.”  
  
 _“Bye.”_  
  
Sasuke hung up unceremoniously, while Itachi didn’t even dare to move, scared that the world might just crumble down for good around him.  
  
Of course, he shouldn’t have expected for Naruto to wait for him for as long as he pleased. For all he knew, Itachi might never be ready. Still, thinking that Naruto would stand his ground had made him feel safe, wanted, and hopeful.  
  
Itachi’s eyes flew open as he stared unblinkingly into the blurry depths of nothingness – all he could, and would ever see. Hollowness was all he could feel at this point.  
  
He had wanted Sasuke to move on so that  _he_  could move on, but what would he do, now that there was nowhere for him to move on to?  
  
He had made a huge, terrible mistake.  
  
TBC...


	4. Part IV

  
**  
Unmei no Koe **

** Part IV **

  
If Itachi were to be honest with himself, the last thing he wanted after having heard the news from his brother about his night out with Naruto, was to have said clear eyed person calling him as well to ask if he could come over with breakfast. Not wanting to be the kind of person who unreasonably held grudges and resentments, he did the most mature thing he could think of – he agreed.  
  
It wasn’t his place to feel betrayed, or lonely. It wasn’t his place to feel jealous, or angry, or heartbroken, because it was all his fault to begin with. Still, he considered that he had the right to feel upset and resentful; a little bit regretful, too.   
  
During an hour and a half after the phone call, he had fought an intense battle within himself as he automatically went about his morning business. Naruto was on his way home, to take a shower, and would then stop somewhere to get some food for them, which meant that Itachi had enough time to settle things with himself until his assistant arrived. He needed a cool head for this.   
  
The situation might’ve been unpredictable at first glance, but he should’ve seen it coming, considering how Naruto and Sasuke were so different from each other but had similar traits that made them almost equal – albeit in a weird way – before each other, and in Itachi’s heart. Both were stubborn and fought avidly to achieve their goals; both had strong, dependable personalities, and both held a fire within them that could never be extinguished. They showed these traits in different ways, and that was what had attracted them to each other.   
  
He knew he was over reacting. A kiss could mean just that – a kiss. Naruto wanted something serious, and Sasuke might or might not be up for it in spite of Itachi’s incentive, and then, who knew what could happen? Naruto might just find someone else he felt attracted to. It made no difference whatsoever.  
  
Something inside of Itachi told him that Naruto would be good for Sasuke. If Naruto were the one who claimed Sasuke for himself, Itachi knew for sure that his little brother would be in good hands, and it made him…very jealous in a way that led him to feel very stupid, because he didn’t know exactly towards whom his jealousy was being directed. He felt envious that someone else would take care of Sasuke for him, but at the same time, he felt jealous because Naruto – someone who, supposedly, was in love with him – had ended up being snatched away by his little brother. In the end, it came down to Itachi regretting having lost the two people dearest to him to one another.  
  
But then…that wasn’t entirely right, either, because he thought they were good for each other. Thinking about them together made his chest constrict in pain and his pants tighten in a very violent, twisted form of lust he had no idea he had possessed. He had ended up wanting both his brother and Naruto at the same time at some point. If he had dated Naruto, he could’ve forgotten all about Sasuke…or not. Maybe he’d still want him, no matter what happened or who he dated. Being with someone else didn’t turn him into a better person, nor helped atone for the sin of loving his brother more than what was healthy and allowed by Mother Nature.   
  
But would he have been able to forget Naruto, even if something did happen between him and Sasuke? Would he have been able to forget the loud, cheery man now that he had carved Itachi’s very soul with his radiant presence?   
  
It was all questions he had no answer for, and probably would never have. Wanting Sasuke; wanting Naruto; none of that mattered. Being with either of them – being with anyone else – would only turn him into a much bigger hypocrite, a much bigger sinner. He understood that now.   
  
He didn’t love easily in spite of having an affinity with this or that person. That kind of heartfelt connection, that deadly empathy, need, genuine necessity of being around someone; that desire to keep them close and never let go…He’d only felt that way with Sasuke, and now, Naruto.  
  
He had fallen hopelessly, and he knew, now, that he wouldn’t feel that way for just anyone – probably ever again.   
  
There was no escaping his fate, no escaping his own demons, and now, he was sure, he would never be able to escape the impending loneliness awaiting him. Because there was no way he could manage to stick to his ideals and still have what he wanted.  
  
By the time Naruto arrived, Itachi was feeling a lot calmer, but still unappeased. He still felt the sadness, the longing, the loss, but he’d have to cope with it. After all, he had managed to coexist with his brother without touching him, and this was no different. The only difference was that now he was running away from two people instead of just one.  
  
Naruto sounded sober and lively, as per usual, as he entered Itachi’s apartment and unceremoniously made himself at home by going to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. His aura was one of joviality and satisfaction, in a matter of seconds managing to lighten the weight that seemed to press Itachi's shoulders down. It was as if nothing had changed at all.  
  
There was no mistaking it – he was in love with the younger man. How utterly cliché.  
  
While he was cooking, Naruto babbled on and on about his date with Sasuke, things the writer listened to out of morbid curiosity as he smoked his cigarettes while sitting at the table, eyes staring vaguely at some point in front of him he couldn’t see, even though he knew there was an empty wall there. As he listened, he felt simultaneously hollow and envious, if not a little mad, because, in the end, Naruto had claimed to have feelings for him, and yet, was all excited about the younger Uchiha. Was Naruto some kind of pervert? But who was Itachi to speak when he was gay, in love with his brother, and now infatuated with two people at the same time?   
  
 _The lowest of the low._  
  
He felt horribly tired, not from the lack of sleep, but from the emotional and psychological exhaustion he had put himself through.  
  
"Don't you sleep?" Itachi asked with a sigh, rubbing his forehead as the beginning of a headache made his skull throb. The air smelled of cigarettes and fried food – he could detect the scent of eggs, some vegetables and rice.  
  
"What, aren't I supposed to work today?" Naruto inquired good-humoredly, followed by the sound of cabinets opening and the clanking of ceramic bowls.  
  
"I was already thinking about giving you a day off," Itachi replied dryly.  
  
"No way, I wouldn't accept that. It's my fault I didn't sleep," the younger one said dismissively. "Besides, I feel pretty invigorated today."  
  
In spite of himself, Itachi actually rolled his eyes lightly. "I bet you do."  
  
Naruto laughed.  
  
"So, Sasuke told you about what happened?" he inquired casually, setting a bowl in front of Itachi, the scent of its contents invading the blind man’s senses. Naruto was a good cook, and usually he did enjoy eating his food.   
  
"Yes, he did," Itachi replied, as the chair on his right was dragged backwards and then forwards after Naruto had sat down.  
  
"Aw, you're mad,” his assistant pointed out perceptively. Itachi shrugged, picking up the chopsticks that were resting beside the bowl and adjusting them on the fingers of his right hand.  
  
When he spoke, his voice sounded nonchalant. "Why would I be mad?"  
  
Naruto hummed, the noise he was making indicating that he was playing with the food in his own bowl.  
  
"Because I said I'd wait for you and then I went and kissed your brother?"  
  
The Uchiha turned his head to Naruto’s direction.  
  
" _You_  kissed him?"  
  
"Yeah," the other said, followed by a movement that Itachi associated with a shrug. "I dunno, maybe? I don't know who started it, it was all pretty sudden." He placed his hand over Itachi’s wrist. "Itachi, I still like you."  
  
The older man had the sudden urge to both slap the hand away, or to touch it with his own, and yet, he did neither or those things, choosing to ignore the gesture altogether – it was upsetting for him to realize that he felt resented, but also a bit turned on by the thought of Naruto and Sasuke making out. For some reason, Naruto talking about it made it all the more exciting.  
  
The disgust he felt towards himself seemed endless.   
  
"And yet you told Sasuke you wanted something serious and didn't want to have sex with him,” he ended up saying, looking for big chunks of whatever food Naruto had put in that bowl with the tips of his chopsticks.  
  
Naruto was already eating, his hand still on his wrist.  
  
"Trust me, I did, and I  _do_  want to have sex with him,” the emphatic way he said it did nothing to calm down Itachi’s nerves and arousal at the mental imagine.  
  
For the first time in years, Itachi groaned. It wasn’t a loud, guttural sound, but a low, angered and frustrated one.  
  
"Are you seriously telling me this?"  
  
"He looks like someone who'd fuck me and then never talk to me again, and I don't want that,” Naruto explained, as he proceeded eating, his fingers caressing Itachi’s wrist slowly, gently.  
  
"For the first time since we've met, I don't get you at all," Itachi said.  
  
"What don't you get?"  
  
Itachi stared at the place where Naruto was, blinking as he made an effort to understand what was going on. He felt so utterly…  
  
He wasn’t feeling like himself at all, his thoughts were all over the place. He had figured things out already, but now that Naruto was there, touching him in that casual and familiar way, he didn’t know where the hell his initial resolve had gone to.  
  
Was Naruto serious about Sasuke, or was it something else?  
  
 _Get yourself together…_  
  
"Listen," Itachi said, mentaly patting himself on the back for keeping his voice cool and firm. "I don't care about what you and Sasuke do, I just don't want you using him as a replacement for me."  
  
Naruto made a sound as if he had just prevented himself from spitting out his food before Itachi felt his intense gaze on him.  
  
"Ah, man, I never pegged you for a conceited kind of guy!” he exclaimed, chewing and then swallowing his food. "You got it wrong. I do still have feelings for you, but I like him, too. He's a bastard, but we click in just the right things. I mean, we clicked… _hard_. And I'm sure he knows it. I want to know him better, I  _really_  do."  
  
Itachi bit his lip, unsure of how that made him feel, but knowing he felt jealous that _his_  Naruto felt that way towards Sasuke, and jealous because Sasuke was receiving that kind of attention from someone that wasn’t him.  
  
He shook Naruto’s hand off his wrist and set the chopsticks down, his food untouched. In silence, he felt the surface of the table in search for his cigarettes and lighter.  
  
"Hey, what do you want me to do, Itachi?" Naruto inquired with renewed softness, sliding the pack towards Itachi’s grasp. "You still have a chance with me, you know? But that click with Sasuke isn't just something I can ignore now that it's here. If I could have you both, I..."  
  
"Stop it,” Itachi snapped icily, causing Naruto to flinch as he easily fished a cigarette and lit it.  
  
"Itachi..."  
  
"I can't do it, I already told you that," the writer hissed, slamming the lighter down on the table. "Sasuke must...if you like him then go for it. You both are precious to me, so nothing would make me happier than to see you fulfilled. That's all I want. End of story."  
  
"You're a lousy liar," Naruto mumbled, after a short pause. "That's not what you want at all."  
  
“You don’t know what I want,” Itachi snarled. “If I could just have what I want, my life would be a lot easier.”  
  
“Why  _can’t_  you have it?” Naruto asked, sounding hurt, mad and confused at his tone. “What’s stopping you? That I want a relationship? I can be your fuck buddy, _and_  Sasuke’s fuck buddy. That way, there are no strings attached and I won’t be betraying either of you. Sex is sex, and without ties, I can fuck whomever I want. If that’s what it takes for me to have you both, then fine, I’ll do it.”  
  
Hearing those words, Itachi felt his anger being gently blown away to be replaced by complacence as he realized that Naruto was just as confused and overwhelmed as Sasuke and Itachi themselves were - he had been caught up in that emotional trap, too.   
  
Itachi bit his lip, closing his eyes.  
  
How could he blame anyone, really? No one was immune to feeling attraction towards someone unexpected.  
  
After a moan Itachi sighed. “That’s not who you are, Naruto.”  
  
“Then what do you want me to do?” Naruto snapped. “You refuse me, and still you look angry and hurt, and I…I don’t want to hurt you. I never did.”  
  
Of course Naruto wouldn’t understand. How could he? He didn’t know about his love for Sasuke, didn’t know that things weren’t that simple for him. He didn’t understand that Itachi’s love for Naruto would never be greater than his devotion towards who he really was – the person whose voice had called out to him and charged his life with light. He could never allow Naruto to betray himself for the sake of his whims.  
  
"If you’re serious about him, just don't hurt him," Itachi said, dispassionately, opening his eyes to focus once more on the spot where his assistant was. "I won’t forgive you."  
  
Naruto made a frustrated sound between clenched teeth.  
  
"Tsk. Are you sure you’re saying that to the right person?” he mumbled accusingly. “I would  _never_  hurt him. All I want is for him to be happy. For  _you_  to be happy. I…know that you both need that happiness, I can feel it. I just…don’t know how to make it all work so that it’s possible.”  
  
Itachi didn’t blink. That young man was too perceptive for his own good. To understand that about Itachi was one thing, but to have seen it in Sasuke as well…whatever it was, that wonderful, stubborn and surreal creature had forged quite the strong bond with both him and Sasuke. What kind of twisted prank was fate pulling, causing three people to feel that way towards each other?  
  
In the back of Itachi’s mind, fascination for the absurdity of it all shone brighter than any rational thought. For one fleeting moment, he wondered what it would be like for the three of them to venture into that unknown, forbidden path. Would they even work? Wouldn’t jealousy and possessiveness be more powerful than love? Naruto couldn’t split his attention and be with two people at the same time. Besides, it wasn’t just about Naruto, but about Sasuke, too. There would always be Sasuke between them, just like Itachi would always be there between Naruto and Sasuke.  
  
No, there was no way that something like that was possible.   
  
“We can’t have everything we want, Naruto,” Itachi ended up saying, feeling his features relax in fatigue. “If you want to make me happy, then make  _him_  happy. That’s all I need. He might be a hard stone to crack, but he’ll be everything you want and more once you get under his skin.”  
  
Naruto was silent for a while. Itachi could hear him inhaling and exhaling sharply, his eyes staring daggers at his unseeing ones.  
  
He eventually let out a long, heavy breath. “You don’t have to tell me he’s worth it, I already knew that. After all, he’s your precious person, isn’t he?”  
  
There was no hidden meaning in his words, so Itachi didn’t bother to answer. Naruto was also his precious person, but saying so out loud would only serve to hurt Naruto more.  
  
Naruto snatched the cigarette from Itachi’s fingers and smashed it on the nearest ashtray he could find.  
  
“I went through the trouble of cooking for you, the least you could do is not make yourself sick and eat it,” he said, firmly but not in an aggressive way. “Come on, we still have a working day ahead of us.”  
  
Itachi still didn’t feel like eating. In fact, he didn’t feel like working at all, which was saying a lot considering he was always up for writing, even when he was feeling down. More than that, he didn’t feel like spending the whole day with Naruto, not because he was mad – that had vanished to leave space for yet more emptiness inside his heart – but because he needed time to come to terms with himself.  
  
Nevertheless, his pride didn’t allow him to curl up and mope, so he all but nodded, slowly, and picked up his chopsticks, willing the food he was about to ingest to give him enough strength to go through that long day without any more emotional bruises.   
  


oOo

  
Naruto and Sasuke's relationship didn't progress as quickly as Itachi had expected. He was aware that they saw each other every day, but he guessed that they might have needed time to find the balance needed between them for something more to happen. They complained loudly about each other to Itachi – who, once more, posed as a confident for both of them – but the affectionate undertone he could identify coming from both was undeniable, and it made him happy in a sour way. Naruto was warming his way to Sasuke’s heart, showing him that friendship and trust was something important between two people who wanted to become intimate.  
  
Sasuke was having a hard time accommodating to this new colorful friendship with him, even though he admitted he enjoyed spending time with the 'loud idiot'. It wasn’t like Itachi’s younger brother had many friends, since he was far more reserved than Itachi ever was in spite of having people following him around, admiring him, wanting to be friends with him. But he wasn’t someone particularly fond of the human race in general – he got bored of people easily. Most of his ‘friends’ were people he kept by his side only because they were connections that might be useful to him in some way. Considering this, it was obvious that this whole bonding thing was an awkward experience for the young Uchiha.  
  
Even if there wasn’t sex between them, Sasuke’s and Naruto’s tales of their dates indicated that they did kiss – heatedly so – and did other things associated with the whole making out process, which might’ve helped the attraction to grow.  
  
Only a few weeks after they had first kissed did Naruto tell Itachi that he was going to suggest to Sasuke that they become a real couple. Sasuke took a few days to consider, panic and excitement making him hesitate. He had never been genuinely infatuated with another person besides Itachi. He had always been independent, and sex was something easy for him to obtain in times of need with no strings attached and no feelings of remorse. But if he started something serious with Naruto, that would mean that his current, conflicting feelings for the other would be involved in the upcoming sex, which meant… _emotional sex_. He had no idea what it was like and how vulnerable that’d make him in Naruto’s eyes, and he didn’t want to be seen that way. Giving more than his body to someone else seemed like such a big deal in his mind, but Itachi could understand him. Like Sasuke, he didn’t know what it felt like to fuck someone out of love, but he did know that simply thinking about fucking either Naruto or Sasuke gave him a rush like nothing else before.  
  
Even so, if there was someone Itachi trusted was Naruto, and he knew the young man would know what to do, how to act to reassure Sasuke that things would be fine, and that’s exactly what he said to his brother to help him make up his mind. In the end, Sasuke gave in, and Naruto’s happiness was evident. They had grown to care for each other for reasons that went beyond their mutual connection to Itachi, and for that, the writer was glad. He was sure they’d manage to make it work just fine. After all, their chemistry was a strong, powerful thing. Every time he was (un)fortunate enough to be in the same place as the two of them, he could swear the air became so thick that it was as if they were surrounded by electricity. It was intoxicating for the writer as well, who wanted nothing more than to be caught up in that mesmerizing wave of need, and yet, he kept his cool, detached appearance as if he felt nothing of the obvious, afraid that he might lose himself in that impending turmoil of lust. It was horrifying how much they pulled him in just by being together.  
  
Itachi was sure that he had made the right choice in letting go of Naruto so that Sasuke could be happy. It had always been about Sasuke, about his safety, about what was best for him, and about his happiness.  
  
For Sasuke, he’d endure everything. There might be pain, but never regret. And Itachi was focused on never looking back.  
  


oOo

  
“So, you have this TV show in a few days,” Naruto was saying, pacing in front of Itachi’s desk as he browsed through his agenda. “They’re going to e-mail me the questions they’re going to ask you, so I think we’ll have time to study what is and isn’t wise to tell them.”  
  
“We should contact Kisame,” Itachi said with a thoughtful nod. “He always knows how to deal with these kinds of interviews.”  
  
“Sure thing,” Naruto agreed, and Itachi heard him scribble down something on the agenda with a pen. “Hopefully it’ll last less than twenty minutes, since it’s a talk show.”  
  
“I honestly hate TV shows,” Itachi admitted, running a hand over his tied hair. “It's hard to pretend that I’m able to see.”  
  
Not everyone knew Itachi was blind. Most people didn’t really notice it, and even though he didn’t hide the fact from the media, it wasn’t like he had any intention of making it public. He was a writer, not some movie star.  
  
Naruto stopped his pacing to look at him. “It’s not hard at all. I can assure you, when you look at me, you always stare at my eyes, just like now. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you could see me.”  
  
“Unfortunately, I can’t,” Itachi said, with a small smile. “But I do see you in a different way. I don’t feel like I’m missing out at all.”  
  
Naruto’s mouth made a weird sound, giving away the fact that it was currently hanging open, and Itachi could bet that Naruto was blushing, even though there was no hidden meaning behind his words.  
  
Naruto was going to say something when the door of the office swung open violently, slamming dramatically against the wall and startling both occupants. The air conditioner was working, and that combined with the air draft coming from outside brought a familiar scent to Itachi’s nose – Sasuke’s expensive cologne. For a moment, his heart skipped a pleasant beat. He had always loved the way Sasuke smelled.  
  
“What the fuck is taking you so long?” the younger Uchiha hissed from the threshold, the question directed at Naruto. “It’s seven in the afternoon; didn’t you get off at six?”  
  
“Hello to you, too,” Itachi greeted, bemused. “Glad to know you’re in a good mood.”  
  
He felt his brother turn to him sharply. “I’ve been waiting for this dumbass for a whole hour, Itachi!”  
  
“I texted you!” Naruto exclaimed. “I told you we had to go through his agenda before the weekend because the next couple of weeks are going to be a complete chaos!”  
  
“I didn’t get any text messages from you,” Sasuke hissed. “Now hurry the fuck up, we still have to drop by Obito’s.”  
  
“It’s fine, Naruto,” Itachi interrupted, sensing his assistant’s upcoming outburst. “We have basically everything covered, so don’t worry.”  
  
“But…”  
  
“We can go through it again on Monday morning,” Itachi insisted calmly, aligning the sheaf of papers in front of him elegantly. “Now get out of here before Sasuke burns my office down with his evil glare.”  
  
Naruto chuckled and started to hurriedly clean up the office of the usual mess of papers and technological devices.  
  
“Ha-ha, very funny,” Sasuke muttered, in a bad mood. “You need a ride?”  
  
“My place is in the opposite direction of Obito’s,” Itachi said. “Now that I think about it, has something happened? It’s been a while since you’ve last visited him.”  
  
“I’m borrowing his house in Kyoto for the weekend,” Sasuke explained plainly. “I still have to get the keys, though. We can still drop you off if you want.”  
  
“That will just delay your journey,” Itachi dismissed easily. “Don’t worry about me and go have fun.”  
  
“Suit yourself, then,” Sasuke said, with light shrug, turning to Naruto. “I’ll be waiting downstairs, so don’t keep me waiting.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah, you’re so moody all the time,” Naruto said, but with evident affection in his tone. “And you didn’t greet me at all, asshole, so get your ass over here.”  
  
Sasuke made an annoyed clacking sound with his tongue, but still took a few steps towards his boyfriend. Itachi heard them peck once, then Naruto chuckled a bit, and then the second peck arrived. After that, the distinct sound of mouths joining and sliding over each other filled his ears, followed but the meeting of tongues in little slurping, wet noises.  
  
The kiss had quickly escalated from innocent to intense, and through it, Itachi pretended to ignore them while he now re-aligned the sheaf of papers and rearranged things on his desk. But it was impossible to ignore just how erotic his body thought the act taking place in front of him was. He couldn’t see it, but his accurate earing told him exactly the moment when Sasuke nipped at Naruto’s lower lip, or when Naruto’s hands moved to grab hold of his ass firmly.  
  
The exchange only lasted for a few seconds, but to Itachi, it felt like a long unworldly experience that made his body feel like it was on fire.  
  
The two drew apart with a light suckling smack before Sasuke cleared his throat, said 'Bye, Itachi' and left, closing the door behind him with as much force as he had used to open it.  
  
Naruto kept doing whatever it was that he was still doing – Itachi didn’t really care since he was too focused on forcing himself to look collected and unshaken.  
  
Once he considered that his hard on wasn’t embarrassingly visible anymore, he got up, intent on getting ready to leave, as well. By the sound of it, Naruto was putting on his jacket, and just as Itachi was going to walk around his desk to go grab his own jacket from the coat hanger nearby, he felt the sudden overpowering presence of the clear eyed young man in front of him, and the next thing he knew, hands were fisting the collar of his sweater and a mouth was being pressed against his with such intensity it was painfully breathtaking.   
  
Naruto didn’t waste time with courtesies such as allowing Itachi to recover from the shock; he didn’t feel like letting either of them adapt to the unknown territory of each other’s mouths either, instead, literally forcing Itachi’s lips apart with the persistence of his own and unceremoniously shoving his tongue inside. The older man barely managed to gasp in confusion – he couldn’t really manage to wrap his mind around the fact that he was being kissed by Naruto and that said kiss was not exactly far from what he had envisioned in his fantasies.   
  
Romantic though as he might seem, Naruto was also an impulsive person, much like Sasuke himself so, more than being thoughtful of tactful, he acted on instinct alone, and that's exactly what he was doing now. There was nothing sensual about it, nothing that resembled practiced experience, and yet, there was such passion, such a strong demand in that kiss that Itachi couldn't think beyond how utterly insane and dramatically good those lips felt, even as his hands cutched the fabric on Naruto's shoulders with the failed intention of pushing him away.   
  
His kiss was a faithful portrait of his personality. Naruto tasted of the minty candy he had been sucking on earlier, a pleasant, refreshing flavor Itachi was instantly drawn to. Itachi's whole existence shivered in pleasure. What made him lose whatever control he had possessed, though, was that other flavor lingering on that silky tongue; a flavor he could identify even after all those years – Sasuke’s flavor.  
  
Sasuke's taste on Naruto's mouth, his essence mixed with Naruto’s but recognizable. Another surprised, undignified gasp left Itachi’s lungs and he moaned, sounding desperate and pathetic even to himself.  
  
Maybe it was the ideology of it all, maybe it was his lust filled brain, or maybe he just needed to indulge just once and forget that he didn't belong there, that that scene didn't belong to him. Whatever it was, he wanted it all because it felt amazing, and truth was, his arms surrounded the younger and slightly shorter man's neck and urgently kissed back, lips relaxing and parting to welcome Naruto's, his own tongue darting out to seek Naruto's hungrily, searching for more of Sasuke there, in the middle of the raging frenzy of Naruto's own pace. It felt too good. He wanted more – wanted  _them_. His muses, the beautiful monsters that had stolen his soul and were now the center of his dreams and most vivid fantasies.  
  
He felt such a strong surge of longing…  
  
But it ended far too soon. Naruto pulled away abruptly, gasping for air and swallowing hard as Itachi tried not to grunt like a beast in heat at the lack of contact.  
  
“Holy shit…” was all Naruto said in between short, quick breaths.  
  
They stood there, panting, bodies too close for comfort. The seconds went by as bliss turned into realization and the writer came to his senses and truly comprehended that he had just torn down his own barriers and crossed his own imaginary lines to not only respond to his brother's boyfriend's kiss, but to also allow himself to give in to his need to taste Sasuke again.  
  
Naruto seemed to calm down considerably, while Itachi was still shaking.  
  
For the first time in a while, he felt so hopelessly vulnerable he felt ashamed of himself. He should have pushed Naruto away, shouldn’t have allowed himself to indulge. He had opened the gates of his own, personal hell.  
  
“Why did you do this?” he asked in a whisper, afraid that his voice might crack, too amazed and horrified to feel angry. He couldn’t even find the strength to move.  
  
He felt Naruto releasing the fabric of his sweater before licking his lips and sighing, his hands moving to Itachi’s arms, carefully removing them from around his neck.  
  
“You think you’re such a good actor, but I can tell you’ve been feeling really down lately,” he said simply, grabbing Itachi’s wrists gently. “You looked so lonely when Sasuke and I were kissing. I thought I might cheer you up a bit, and let you know just how amazing he tastes.”  
  
Itachi couldn’t really reply to something like that. Realizing just how obvious he was made him feel sick. Knowing he was transmitting that weakness to Naruto – and probably Sasuke – felt like a violent slap in the face, when all he wanted was for them to be happy together and not worry about him.   
  
Panic clawed at his chest. Did Naruto know about him and Sasuke, or was he just taking guesses to see if he figured out what really was upsetting him?  
  
Whatever it was, what were Naruto’s intentions in doing, and saying, such things to him? What was he trying to prove, to accomplish?  
  
Things weren’t going as planned at all. Was Itachi ruining everything he had been struggling to build? Was he burying himself in an even deeper hole?  
  
“You…are with Sasuke,” Itachi said, regaining some semblance of control and taking a step backwards, his lower back colliding with his desk as Naruto let go of his wrists.  
  
“Yes, I am,” the other agreed, the sound of clothing letting Itachi know he was fixing his jacket.  
  
Itachi swallowed hard. “Don’t hurt him.”  
  
He could swear he heard Naruto’s eyebrows rise before letting out a dry cackle.  
  
“This may sound weird to you, Itachi, but I love him,” Naruto said bluntly, sounding lightly offended, and Itachi was sure he was frowning at him. “We may not know each other that long, but in our own way, we understand each other perfectly. I thought I had that kind of connection with you, as well, but apparently you don’t want to acknowledge it.” Itachi bit his lip, something sharp stinging his heart. “I kissed you because I love you, too, and it breaks my heart to see you like this. But since it means so much to the both of us, I want you to know that I have decided to do whatever it takes to make Sasuke happy. I mean it, too.”  
  
Itachi all but nodded, unsure of what to do with himself and the things being thrown in his face. “I know you do.”  
  
“Good,” Naruto said. “I’m leaving. Will you be alright?”  
  
“Yes,” the lie came out easily, but unforgivingly dishonest.   
  
“Okay,” Naruto mumbled, clearly not buying it. “See you on Monday, then.”  
  
Without saying a word, Itachi listened to Naruto gathering the rest of his things and then leaving.  
  
The sudden silence was deafening, but not as deafening as the immense, endless void residing inside him.  
  


oOo

  
Itachi had been writing a lot of porn recently. Not ordinary plots with a few love-making scenes here and there, but real sex driven stories, sometimes with homosexual pairings, other times with heterosexual pairings, and sometimes – when he was feeling particularly decadent – he’d write threesomes, foursomes or even orgies. Naruto made fun of him all the time, saying that he needed to get laid badly, but that he might really become even more popular now that he was so focused on being so ‘openly and brilliantly depraved’.  _You’re awakening your inner Marquis de Sade_ , he would say.  
  
Itachi didn’t bother to correct Naruto’s assumption on the getting laid part, because it was painfully true, especially after that particular  _incident_. He had the strangest feeling that his assistant liked to torture him, if the number of times he offered innuendos about his sexual activities with Sasuke was any indication.   
  
Life hadn’t changed all that much, thankfully, and the routine was the same as always. Sasuke still visited him at his apartment – sometimes accompanied by Naruto –, just like Itachi still visited his brother, even if not as frequently because he was afraid he might stumble upon something awkward, since Naruto had gained the habit of sleeping over at Sasuke’s. Nothing had changed apart from the fact that Itachi’s heart, mind, body and soul were all a mess.  
  
Even though Itachi didn’t want to show his weak side, he avoided those two as much as he could.   
  
Saying he couldn’t work two jobs and still have time for Sasuke and his general social life, Naruto had quit his job at the restaurant, asking Itachi if he could work more hours, but Itachi had offered him a raise without demanding more work from him. Money wasn’t the issue, and Naruto already did more than enough. Besides, it made him happy that he wanted to dedicate more time to his brother.  
  
In spite of everything, Itachi had the feeling that fate was out to get him. Of course, ‘fate’ was just a poetic word to describe Sasuke’s own personal and very devilish interference. He didn’t know if his brother was aware of Naruto kissing him or not. He didn’t know how much Sasuke’s and Naruto’s claimed feelings for him affected their relationship as a couple. It wasn’t like Itachi had expected for them to forget about him altogether, but he had intended for them to be together and belong to each other without their attachment to him to bind them.   
  
On a Saturday night, his little brother had called him. Itachi had been in bed already, the fact that he was constantly on edge not allowing him to sleep, his fingers traveling over the protrusions on the pages of a book when the phone rang with the familiar ringtone. He picked it up with automatic ease even though he wasn’t particularly keen on talking to him, and offered the usual greet, meeting nothing but a small background noise. He called out Sasuke’s name in confusion, only to be greeted back by a low, pleasurable moan followed by a grunt. The next thing he knew, he was being witness to the distinct sound of lips crashing and moving noisily against each other, tongues clashing wetly.   
  
It didn’t take Itachi much to know what Sasuke was doing and what was happening. He could hear the shuffling of clothes being removed and Naruto’s urgent pleas. He could hear Sasuke’s naturally husky voice humming his approval, distinctly low in the haze of lust.  
  
For a few moments, Itachi was immobile, clutching the phone in his slightly shaky hand, his heart beating violently in his chest as his body reacted quickly to the sounds provided. His mind worked fast but clumsily, a part of him furious at Sasuke’s nerve, screaming at him to hang up the phone call at once, but another part of him desperately wanting to hold on to the chance.  
  
Itachi had closed his eyes, inhaling sharply and noiselessly. The powerful surge of emotions made him feel like he wanted to die. Wave after wave of lust ran thought his blood as he listened to them.   
  
For a fleeting moment, he had wondered if Sasuke was conscious of what he was doing to him, of how much he was forcing Itachi to break.   
  
He didn’t know how much more he could take from those two. His resolve had been shattered, over and over again over the past few weeks and it was becoming increasingly harder to look the other way and betray his own feelings.  
  
Even if he wasn’t there with them, he wished to take part in what was happening, wanted to listen to their voices, to be there, somehow. He didn’t know if Naruto had any idea of Sasuke’s evil scheme, but it didn’t really matter because just knowing that Sasuke himself knew Itachi was listening was probably the hugest turn on of his life.   
  
It probably was a huge turn on for Sasuke, too, and knowing that he could provide such a rush was reason enough for Itachi to ignore the tiny voice in his head that screamed that it was a bad idea and that he should walk away.  
  
But Itachi was tired of being played, tired of knowing he was wanted and still feeling lonely, even if that was the path he had built for himself. He couldn’t have them, but he could have a bit of them, and even if just for a moment, he wanted to take as much as he could get.  
  
Itachi had set the book aside and made himself comfortable on the bed. He could hear Sasuke chuckling around a mouthful of something and Naruto panting in urgent demands between curses. Sometimes their words were incomprehensible, but they weren’t necessary for Itachi to imagine exactly what they were doing based on the noises they made. He could picture it all clearly – Sasuke’s head between Naruto’s legs, that would spread further open as the pleasure increased, fingers gripping firmly locks of ebony hair; Sasuke moving away slightly, offering a few words of teasing to reply to Naruto’s protest as he languidly brought two fingers to his mouth and licked them. Naruto’s impatient growl as said fingers pressed into him  _deep_.   
  
Mouths meeting and devouring each other with a hunger that seemed insatiable. Sasuke’s hiss as Naruto stroked him, urging him on.  
  
When Naruto moaned an angry and needy “Holy shit, just fuck me already, Sasuke!” Itachi couldn’t control the burning heat running through his body anymore. Something inside of him snapped with the overwhelming need to give in to his most animalistic instincts as, all of a sudden, the memory of Naruto’s Sasuke-flavored kiss assaulted him.   
  
Before he could stop himself, he was clinging to every word, every sound, every moan, and every pant coming from his two precious people. With his teeth sunk in his lower lip and his right hand around his painfully erect cock, he listened to his brother fucking Naruto like there was no tomorrow. It had helped him reach the best orgasm he had had so far.   
  
When he came to his senses, he didn’t know if he should fall in love with Sasuke all over again or hate him like he’d never hated anyone before. Still, in the next few weeks, every time the younger Uchiha called so Itachi could listen to them fuck each other senseless, it was impossible to ignore the need burning in him, so he indulged, losing himself a little more because he had nothing else to quell the lust and love that threatened to consume everything he was.  
  
Sasuke didn’t talk about these things with him. In fact, Sasuke barely talked about _them_  at all anymore. It provided a nice sense of achievement and sadness for Itachi – he didn’t feel like he was ready to deal with that loss, after all.   
  
Things were quickly turning against him, and he didn’t know how much longer he could pretend to be immune.  
  
TBC...


	5. Part V

  
**  
Unmei no Koe **

** Part V **

  
Naruto's apartment was minuscule compared to where Itachi lived. It had only one single, wide room. The kitchen area stood on the wall opposite the entrance door. On the wall to the left, Itachi had felt a traditional wardrobe with sliding doors, and on the right wall there were two doors containing the bathroom and the bathing room. There was a small, low square wooden table on the center of the apartment and a few paintings here and there, but apart from that, it was simple and plain.  
  
Naruto and Sasuke had been dating for a while now, and once in a blue moon, they liked to force him to hang out with them. The reason why Itachi tagged along was because he knew he avoided them far too much – it was easier for him to be himself and keep his resolve strong – and because being around those two always made him feel both wanted and comfortable. With his parents living faraway in the countryside, they were his only family, capable of soothing his darkest moods and making him feel like he was home.   
  
On that night, the two of them were in a particular good mood. As Itachi smoked his cigarette, sitting on the floor in front of the low table, an old radio played an unknown song from an unknown band. Behind him, in the kitchen area, Sasuke and Naruto were preparing dinner together. They moved with practiced ease, once in a while exchanging insults between them, causing Itachi to smile to himself in contentment. They would kiss innocently and then whisper softly to each other.  
  
The food they prepared was simple, but tasty. It had lots of vegetables, just as Sasuke liked it, and a lot of meat, courtesy of Naruto. There was beer, and red wine, too, fact that worried Itachi because if those two got drunk, he'd have no one to drive him home, and he had no idea where he was, so it wasn't like he'd take the chance of venturing outside to find some sort of public transportation at night.  
  
He didn't let that small detail bother him, because he was actually having fun for once, happy to simply be beside the two people that meant the most to him in the whole world.  
  
They talked about everything and nothing as they ate and drank. Naruto blabbered on incessantly about whatever absurd topic he could think of, something that earned him several exasperated smacks across the head from Sasuke, which in turn, led them to start several pointless arguments. Itachi couldn't help but laugh and compare them to spoiled children, effectively diverting their attentions from each other so they could focus on insulting  _him_ , instead.  
  
Dessert came in the form of a bottle of  _sake_. Itachi was feeling pretty good by then, even though he didn't feel drunk.  
  
"You can just crash here, and I'll drive you home tomorrow," Naruto was saying joyfully. He was sitting on Itachi’s left, between him and Sasuke.  
  
“You only own one  _futon_ , moron,” Sasuke pointed out from his sitting spot across from Itachi.  
  
“It’s a huge  _futon_!” Naruto defended, snatching Itachi’s cigarette from him. “It’ll be a tight fit, but I’m sure we’ll be fine.”  
  
Naruto took one experimental drag on the cigarette, and promptly started to cough. “Holy shit, how can anyone smoke this thing?!”  
  
“It would be inappropriate for me to sleep with the two of you,” Itachi said, stifling his laughter. “Now give me my  _thing_  back.”  
  
“No, give it to  _me_ ,” Sasuke demanded, and by the sound of it, Naruto complied, handing Sasuke the cancer stick.  
  
“I’m too buzzed to drive, and we drove here in my car, so tough luck on that, boss,” the youngest of the three replied, stubbornly.  
  
“I can’t disagree with that,” said Sasuke.  
  
“Can’t you light one for yourself?” Itachi mumbled, now annoyed.  
  
“I don’t feel like it,” was Sasuke’s reply, as he inhaled from Itachi’s half smoked cigarette. “Is there more  _sake_  left?”  
  
“Anyway, it’s not like we’re going to have sex with you there,” Naruto offered, teasingly, elbowing Itachi’s side. “Unless you’re up for it, of course. We’d put up quite the show for you.”  
  
It was Sasuke’s turn to cough as if he had just choked on his own saliva. Itachi merely raised an eyebrow in his assistant’s direction. He knew exactly what kind of show they could provide, but preferred to keep his observations to himself.  
  
“Anyway,” Sasuke said, clearing his throat. “Mom called yesterday, and she really wants to see us. It’s been a while since we visited them. I was thinking we could bring Naruto along, since she’s looking forward to meeting him.”  
  
“I love your mom,” Naruto admitted excitedly, turning to Itachi. “We talked a few times on the phone, and she sounds like such a wonderful, sweet woman. And she’s really beautiful from what I’ve seen in the pictures at Sasuke’s place! You guys really take after her.”  
  
“Itachi inherited our dad’s seriousness,” Sasuke intervened, a smile gracing his voice. “When he frowns it’s just like him. And those marks in his face are just like dad’s, too. But yeah, I suppose he inherited our mother’s beauty, in a way.”  
  
“Ah, your dad looks scary,” Naruto agreed, laughing. “But Itachi looks scary, too, sometimes.”  
  
“ _Most of the times_ ,” Sasuke reinforced.  
  
“Do they know Naruto’s your boyfriend?” Itachi inquired, suddenly uncomfortable. “Or is he going to be introduced as a friend  _and_  my assistant?”  
  
“They know,” the youngest Uchiha confirmed. “Mom was a bit disappointed he’s a guy, though.”  
  
“Well, she did want you to provide grandchildren,” Itachi mumbled, grabbing his tiny porcelain cup of sake. “Considering I’m the hopeless case in the family and all that.”  
  
“Itachi came out when he was sixteen,” Sasuke explained plainly to Naruto.   
  
“I dated a few women in my life, but it was easier for me to not give them hope,” Itachi sipped the rest of his  _sake_  and set the cup down. “Sasuke, on his part, was always very vague about his sexuality, so I suppose our parents still rely on him to keep the family growing.”  
  
“The family is already huge as it is, and our cousins can breed as much as they like,” Sasuke dismissed.  
  
“Just because you’re with a guy it doesn’t mean you can’t have kids,” Naruto offered, reasonably. “I can’t tell the future, but if we can put up with each other for the rest of our lives, I’m fine with having kids if that’s what you want.”  
  
Itachi pursed his lips together, a stupid, strong feeling of rejection hitting him, and Sasuke fell silent, probably staring at Naruto with a bewildered expression.  
  
“I wouldn’t concern myself with your parents,” Naruto pressed on, easily. “They love you both and have apparently accepted both of you for what you are, even though they sound traditional, coming from such a huge, ancient clan. They’ll respect whatever either of you chooses to do with your lives, I’m sure.”  
  
For some reason, Naruto’s words pierced through Itachi’s heart, making him feel emotional all of a sudden with nostalgia for the place that had seen him and Sasuke grow up.   
  
His parents had always been strict, yet loving. Neither he nor his little brother were people easy to handle, and still, considering the way they were brought up and their parents’ expectations for them, the truth was, mother and father had always supported and trusted their choices.  
  
It sounded so reassuring coming from Naruto’s mouth that Itachi couldn’t help but to wonder if his parents would’ve been understanding like that if he ever told them how much he really loved Sasuke and how much he wanted to stay by his side. Would they ever understand if, for some unfathomable reason, things had been different and he were to introduce Naruto as his and Sasuke’s lover?  
  
If there was love,  _enough_  love, would they understand?   
  
“Oh, shit, did I say something wrong?” Naruto inquired doubtfully, sounding upset with himself. “The two of you have these identical expressions of sourness, and I don’t know if I should be scared, worried, or turned on.”  
  
Sasuke huffed and Itachi managed to smile lightly.  
  
"Hn..." Itachi replied. Knowing Sasuke the way he did, his brother had probably been thinking about the exact same thing as him.  
  
“Just…don’t you know when to shut up?” Sasuke mumbled dryly.  
  
Naruto didn’t answer for a while, seeming lost in thought. After a long, heavy and undoubtedly tense silence, he hummed determinedly. “Yeah,” he said. “I actually do. I’m done with the useless talking.”  
  
Itachi’s breath got caught in his lungs as he felt Naruto moving towards Sasuke, and he knew he was going to kiss him even before their mouths collided. His fists clenched over his lap. When Sasuke moaned around Naruto’s tongue, Itachi forced his expression to remain impassive as he turned his face to the side in an unconscious act of embarrassment, the action providing little comfort considering he couldn’t escape the sounds they made. They were barely a meter away from him, what the hell was Naruto  _thinking_?   
  
The two broke the contact, but Itachi could still hear gentle kisses being planted over skin. “Sasuke...” Naruto whispered, probably against Sasuke’s neck.   
  
"Yeah..."  
  
Naruto was straightening up. When he turned to him, Itachi felt his whole body becoming rigid with fear and uncertainty. He felt Naruto’s warmth approaching him cautiously, his knees touching Itachi’s thigh, his chest pressing itself against his arm before his hand touched his cheek gently, pulling his face closer. Panic gripped at his insides, the last remnants of his resolve making him force his head away from Naruto’s grasp, but the other’s hand was firm as it turned Itachi’s face to him, his breath now colliding with Itachi’s raged one.  
  
“What are you…” he demanded, but before he could protest any further, Naruto had already pressed his mouth to his roughly, instantly flooding his body in burning heat. Itachi’s response was horrifyingly automatic in its eagerness, and all he could think about was how good it felt, and then on how Naruto was Sasuke’s lover, and how Sasuke was watching the display. It was all so wrong, especially because it felt so disturbingly and sadistically good.  
  
When Naruto’s tongue clashed with his and Sasuke’s taste mingled between them, the agonizing need made Itachi fear for his self-control, so he summoned whatever was left of his sanity and actually managed to press a wrist to Naruto’s chest and push him away a bit, enough to break the kiss.   
  
Naruto was breathing heavily, his mouth still uncomfortably close to Itachi’s, lips brushing his in a feather-like touch.   
  
Itachi wanted to scold him, to ask him what the hell he was thinking, but when he swallowed hard, he remembered that it was both Sasuke’s and Naruto’s taste he was ingesting, and his voice got stuck in his throat.  
  
"Nee, Itachi," Naruto mumbled cautiously, his fingers moving to the back of Itachi’s neck to stroke it gently, his other hand resting on Itachi’s knee. "You love him a lot, don't you?"  
  
Itachi pursed his lips together, his hand fisting Naruto’s t-shirt, unaware of the gesture. It was clear that Naruto was talking about Sasuke; why, Itachi didn’t know, but it was obvious that things had taken quite the violent turnt in a matter of seconds. He felt his muscles become stiff with tension.   
  
"He's my brother, of course I love him,” Itachi said in a whisper, not wanting his voice to give away the nervousness he was feeling.  
  
Naruto let out a dry, short laugh. "That's not what I mean. From the moment I met him, I knew that he was the person from your books. On that day…gosh, you should've seen the look on your face when you heard his voice."  
  
It was then that Itachi fully understood that Naruto knew about him and Sasuke. Horror struck him with the power of a lightning bolt, and he let go of Naruto’s t-shirt as if it burned him. When he tried to move backwards, somehow wanting to get away from Naruto’s dangerous presence, the younger one stopped him, strengthening his clutch on the back of Itachi’s neck as his other hand grabbed for Itachi’s wrist. They struggled for a few seconds as Itachi hissed a few curses Naruto seemed to ignore – he wasn’t letting him go no matter what, and Itachi, being taller and probably stronger, was afraid to use his full strength to release himself from the grasp because he didn’t want to hurt him.  
  
“Sasuke?” Itachi called out, turning his face in the direction of his brother, his voice sounding aggressive in his confusion and desperation for  _someone_  to just put a stop to whatever it was that was going through his assistant’s head.  
  
“I’m here,” Sasuke said, the abnormally low, soft tone causing Itachi to still in utter surprise. Sasuke sounded both endeared and sad over the scene in front of him, and it was something unknown to him.  
  
Naruto seemed to find his boss’s reaction amusing because he offered a soft chuckle, the sound reverberating in his ears loudly.  
  
"He loves you a lot, too, you know?" he muttered, releasing Itachi completely now that he felt that he wouldn’t try to escape, his hands offering a gentle caress before letting go. Even more surprised, Itachi now turned his face to him, noting that only their legs were touching, now. "At first, when I met him, I was really jealous that he was your precious person, but then, as I got to know him better, I started getting jealous of his focus on  _you_ ," Naruto heaved a long sigh. "And then, as I wrapped my mind around it and I realized just how much I cared for the both you, I...I grew fascinated, because...what you two have is so heartbreakingly beautiful, but so sad. That sadness that consumes the two of you… I can't chase it away, no matter what I do."  
  
Itachi’s lips were parted as he breathed in and out. Not only was Naruto blatantly reaffirming that he knew about him and Sasuke, he was also stating, out loud, his feelings for both of them and for what they had. Itachi had feared, in the middle of all that, that his friend might be heartbroken once he knew that it wasn’t just about him and the both of them, but also about Itachi and Sasuke as well. He had feared Naruto might find them disgusting, that he’d walk away from them, from Sasuke.  
  
But Naruto, it seemed, wasn’t disgusted, and Itachi didn’t know if he should feel relieved, or just plain scared. It was unsettling for him to not know how to act, or what to say.   
  
Still, there was no way he could deny his feelings since Naruto and Sasuke were clearly in this together. He was buried in deep shit, and no amount of shame or embarrassment would manage to get him out.  
  
"What is your point, Naruto?" Itachi hissed, clenching his fists yet again over his lap to stay as calm as he could.  
  
"My point is..." Naruto proceeded, now in a darker, more serious tone. "I understand you. I understand that you want to protect him, that you think it's wrong, but...you can't let go; you  _won't_. What you fail to see is that, no matter what you think, Sasuke won't, either."  
  
Itachi’s breath got stuck in his lungs, as he heard Sasuke move, coming closer – probably on his hands and knees – before stopping at his side, close enough for him to feel his strong presence, but not enough to touch.  
  
He was being trapped, he knew that, and he didn’t want to move, afraid that he might come into contact with either of them and lose it. He didn’t understand what Naruto was trying to accomplish, didn’t understand what Sasuke was doing in keeping quiet and watching from the sidelines.  
  
However, when he felt the back of Sasuke’s fingers brushing his upper arm just below the short sleeve of his shirt, his rational side felt like it was being crushed. The gesture was casual, but it made his heart start racing violently and chills go up and down his spine at how unbearably nice it felt.  
  
"Naruto..." he said, his voice raspy as he forced himself to be very still. It was a terrible idea, all of that. Listening, staying there, it was just…  
  
"No, listen," his assistant interrupted in a very gentle tone. "Love is like...the purest feeling in the world, and it doesn't discriminate. The way the two of you feel towards each other is unique, it's...unworldly. How can you think that something so strong is wrong?"  
  
Sasuke was on his knees, and he was moving even closer, fingers getting inside Itachi’s sleeve, caressing the skin there. Itachi could smell his cologne, as well as his natural scent. It was distracting beyond reason. He wanted to touch him back so badly his hands seemed to spasm.  
  
"Even if you say those things, you don't know what it feels like, for me, to acknowledge something as twisted as this,” he murmured, feeling weak but managing to sound strict.   
  
"Twisted in the eyes of whom?" Naruto asked, as if he was talking to a child, or someone genuinely crazy.  
  
"The world."  
  
It was Naruto’s turn to make a move, his hand touching Itachi’s hair, stroking it slowly, and he could swear he had sensed him exchanging glances with Sasuke.  
  
"You know, the world keeps spinning, whether you abide to its rules or not," he whispered, just as Sasuke leaned closer to rest his chin on Itachi’s shoulder, breath ghosting over the curve of his neck. "Others may condemn it ignorantly, but they will be fine and move on with their lives, while you and Sasuke..." Naruto’s own voice cracked a bit, and he licked his own lips before clearing his throat. "Itachi...I am twisted, too, then. Because I can't stop thinking about how much I want to see you two together,  _happy_  together…but I'm also so,  _so_  jealous and afraid that I might be left behind..."  
  
“You’re just stupid, Naruto,” Sasuke said in a low, soft, but highly sensual voice in Itachi’s ear. Fuck, he was going to start sweating soon, from the effort he was making. “Haven’t we talked about this already?” Sasuke licked his lips, and Itachi could just feel the intense look he was giving Naruto. “Tell him what you want.”  
  
Naruto swallowed hard, shifting as if feeling suddenly alert. “I want you two to be happy the way you want to be happy,” Naruto then said, slowly but confidently. "I want you two to have each other, but I don’t want to lose either of you. If you can just love each other and let me be a part of it, as well, neither of us will have to feel left out and we won’t be…betraying anyone; but most importantly, we won’t be betraying  _ourselves_.”  
  
Itachi couldn’t help but to release a dry, ironic chuckle, not really knowing how to feel – if scared beyond himself, or utterly happy that such an offer was being made. His muscles felt tired from all the tension he had put them through, and even his heart seemed exhausted from keeping so many emotions in for so long. He could feel Sasuke’s eyes on him and Naruto’s expectancy.   
  
Could he really take another day pretending that he didn’t want them with everything he had? They all feared the same, and they all wanted the same.  
  
"Itachi," Sasuke muttered, so close now that his mouth was purposefully brushing against Itachi's cheek. "I could never be happy knowing that you're miserable, so...don't do this to us. Let's do what feels right, for once. It's not just about the two of us anymore; you have to think about Naruto, too."  
  
Itachi's eyelids fell at the simple, delicate pleasure created by his brother's touch, feeling completely lost in the haze of need and love that clouded his mind, blurring everything he had always considered to be right, everything he had fought so hard to build and to maintain.  
  
There was no way his heart could handle any more loneliness after this, and he seriously felt like he would die if he applied any more restriction to what his very soul was yearning for.  
  
Itachi sighed and his body, once more, moved without him noticing, his cheek applying a light pressure on Sasuke's lips in a silent request.   
  
It was as if that one, apparently innocent action had become the most powerful trigger in the world, like it had unlocked the chains restraining them and opened the heavy doors of the unknown that they were eager to explore. Itachi was only slightly conscious of Naruto pulling off the braid that tied his hair until the silky strands were free and cascading along his back. Not even two seconds went by when said strands were pushed to the side to reveal an elegant neck that was quickly assaulted by an impatient mouth. Tiny jolts of pleasure ran down Itachi's spine.  
  
While digging his nails teasingly on Itachi’s arm, a small, triumphant smile graced Sasuke’s mouth before he pressed it to his cheek, gently but in a way that was everything but innocent.  
  
There was a tongue on his neck, and Itachi shivered violently, turning his face so he could face his brother’s, which caused them to bump noses. The proximity, the smell of Sasuke’s breath was intoxicating and the writer felt himself sinking hopelessly.  
  
Hands ran up and down his back possessively; he swallowed down a moan.  
  
“I love you,” Itachi whispered, the truthfulness of the sentence helping his voice to reach a level of steadiness he was thankful for, and even though he couldn’t see it, he could just perceive Sasuke’s smile fading.  
  
“Then show me,” Sasuke replied back wantonly. “Do what you want to do. I’m yours to have.”  
  
Like the start of a powerful engine, Itachi’s heartbeat seemed to have skyrocketed. Something inside his chest made him feel like he was about to burst, and his head was starting to hurt from so many repressed emotions. All he wanted was for it all to stop, for those terrible and painful things inside to leave and give place to nothing but joy.  
  
Like a demon unleashed, he had no control over his actions as he made his mouth crash over Sasuke’s with vicious hunger, eliciting a low groan from him. His body twisting to the side, he had no idea what he was doing, or how his hands had managed to move so that they were gripping the spiky strands in the back of Sasuke’s head. There was no time for simple explorations or simply taking it slow – twelve years of waiting, it seemed, had been more than enough, and even though the territory inside his brother’s welcoming mouth was now completely unknown to him, there was still a distant familiarity to it that gave Itachi the confidence he needed.  
  
Tongue plunging unceremoniously inside the warm cavern, an explosion of flavor and lust made his head spin when Sasuke’s own tongue slid against his eagerly.  
  
Sasuke didn’t kiss like a lost, innocent child anymore, instead, responding with the automatic ease caused by desire, but the eagerness was still there, strong, passionate, curious and unaware of the clumsiness, and the rawness of it was taking Itachi’s breath away.   
  
Sasuke tasted just like he remembered – clean, sharp, and now with a hint of spiciness brought by the alcohol he had been drinking and the cigarette he had smoked – sheer perfection.  
  
The contact of Naruto’s body abandoned him, but that didn’t discourage Itachi from kissing Sasuke until he almost suffocated from lack of oxygen. The sound of something being dragged filled his ears, alerting him that the low table was being pushed to a corner, allowing him to stretch his legs, which Sasuke wasted no time in straddling. He was forced to release Sasuke’s hair as he was pushed back, his hands coming behind him to support his weight on the floor. The youngest Uchiha was efficient in bringing nimble fingers to Itachi’s shirt, starting to unbutton it impatiently.  
  
“That is just fucking hot…” Naruto murmured lustfully, from a spot not too far from where they were, probably having wanted to waste some time in just watching them.  
  
Sasuke was the one who broke the kiss, biting down on Itachi’s lower lip and tugging at it slightly with his teeth before releasing it.   
  
Itachi opened his eyes, feeling dizzy. Sasuke had opened his shirt; his warm and a bit sweaty hands were touching his chest, eager but forcefully gentle, digits brushing over his nipples almost fearfully before moving down to trace the quivering muscles of his abdomen.  
  
“Don’t just sit there and stare, moron,” Sasuke huffed impatiently in Naruto’s direction. “Get your ass over here and  _do_  something.”  
  
Leaning his head back and baring his neck, Itachi let Sasuke attack it with his teeth, biting down on his jugular and then tracing the area with his tongue, forcing him to release a moan. He could feel Naruto moving closer and his brother’s hands moving lower, still, until they were working on unbuttoning his trousers and unzipping them, the action so efficient that it startled him, but before he could even think of protesting or moving away, lips were pressed to his insistently, effectively silencing him. He opened his mouth to allow Naruto entrance, melting into the kiss. Those two were ganging up on him and wouldn’t allow him to back away now that the damage had been done. He couldn’t even if he had wanted to, which he didn’t; not anymore.  
  
When Sasuke’s expert hands freed his stinging erection from his pants and boxers, Itachi’s hips bucked with the feel of that unfamiliar hand in him, but Naruto’s palm was now pressed to his chest as if to calm him down and reassure him. He was only vaguely conscious of Sasuke abandoning his lap and nudging Itachi’s legs open with his knees, and obligingly, Itachi allowed him space between his thighs. Shortly after, the head of his cock was engulfed in unwarned warmth and slickness, and he whimpered weakly in pleasure against Naruto’s relentless mouth, fists clenching on the floor, aching to touch. Cold shivers ran down his spine as Sasuke sucked him deeper at a fast pace with well-practiced effortlessness, tongue swirling around the leaking head and noisily slurping his pre-cum as Naruto kissed him. There was a hand on his ball sac, squeezing tightly, and another one at the base of his cock, moving up and down in the same rhythm of Sasuke’s ministrations.  
  
Itachi knew he wouldn’t last long. However, it was when Naruto pinched his right nipple between his fingers, adding an extra feeling to his already riled up state that he lost it.  
  
It was too much, too fast, too soon. Before Itachi could fully comprehend what was happening, heat made his insides boil and his body spasm. Turning his face away from Naruto, he parted his lips in a silent scream, and before he could even utter some kind of alert, he was cumming helplessly into Sasuke's mouth; his brother moaning lustfully around him, creating a light vibration as he swallowed every bit of the fluid leaving Itachi’s body, his throat and mouth too tight for Itachi’s pulsing cock, and Itachi’s orgasm seemed to last forever as he shamelessly thrust his hips to meet that wonderful heat.  
  
When it was finally over, all he could do was fall backwards to lie down completely on the floor in sheer happiness. Sasuke was still licking his cock clean with evident care and affection, and Itachi’s head was spinning, his heart racing far too much – he felt dizzy from the pleasure forced upon him, but blissfully satiated, blinking awkwardly at the unseen ceiling.  
  
When Sasuke was finished, he placed a few kisses on Itachi’s belly before straightened up, breathing just as hard as the older Uchiha himself.  
  
“That seriously turned me on,” Naruto said, between amused chuckles. “I didn’t know you were so sensitive, Itachi.”  
  
Itachi swallowed hard and breathed in and out deeply, to try and calm down his raging heartbeat, but to no avail. He couldn’t muster the courage to open his mouth.  
  
He had finally given up on his own convictions and allowed himself to give in instead, and it fell…not as wrong as he had assumed it would feel. Actually, having Sasuke and Naruto close, touching him, kissing him, making him feel loved was the best feeling of completion he had ever experienced.  
  
“Was it good for you?” Naruto asked Itachi, leaning down to place a chaste kiss on his forehead. “He does give some amazing head.”  
  
Itachi simply smiled and made an affirmative sound with the back of his throat.  
  
He didn’t really care about what was going to happen next. All he wanted right now was to belong to them and give himself like he had never given himself to another person before.  
  
Itachi felt Naruto leave his side to go to his brother, and in an almost dazed state, he listened to them making out and touch each other. The awkward, desperate sound of clothes being removed was probably the biggest turn on, though, and, for a moment, Itachi found himself enjoying immensely the tension and desire emanating from those two. The electricity seemed to reach him, teasing every single pore of his skin. They were  _right there_. Naruto's knee was touching his foot.   
  
Itachi quickly divested himself from his jeans and boxers, throwing them to the side, and moved over to them on his hands and knees until his forehead bumped slightly against the waist bone of one of them. Someone touched his hair briefly but he didn’t really want to delve on who, so he got up on his knees in front of them, guessing they were both in similar positions but with their sides to him, facing each other.  
  
Carefully, he brought his hands to feel the air in front on him, and eventually, they meet solidness as they collided with the faces there. It felt a bit confusing at first, since they were clearly close, but then Itachi realized that they were still kissing, Sasuke was on his left, and Naruto on his right. They didn’t flinch at his contact, so Itachi touched his brother’s face with his left hand, and Naruto’s with his right, eager to feel for himself the differences between the two.  
  
With feathery touches, he felt Sasuke’s closed eyes, soft eyelashes placed upon even softer skin before moving to the perfect curve of his perky nose, his other hand feeling Naruto’s forehead, going lower to his cheek where the slightly rougher texture of his birthmarks could be felt. They were both stupidly attractive, but where Sasuke was all sharp, elegant angles, Naruto was made of more vulgar lines, but not less perfect.  
  
His left hand moved a little to the side, causing his middle finger to meet the precise spot where their mouths were touching. Gasping a bit, he felt their lips move over each other in perfect sync, tongues meeting occasionally and brushing lightly over his fingertip. There was no stopping the twitch on his awakening cock, now.  
  
Swallowing hard for the umpteenth time, Itachi decided to move his hands lower, to their shoulders and then to their shoulder blades, running slowly up and down their spines, the gesture earning him a moan from both. Again, the texture of their skin was different. Where Sasuke was all soft, taut muscles, Naruto was a bit fuller, his skin rougher, but not less well-built. Itachi bit his upper lip in awe as his hands moved and now trailed down from their chests to their abs, then lower, only to find that they were jerking each other off slowly. Feeling his fingers, both hands moved out of the way obediently, and Itachi wasted no time in taking their places.  
  
Fuck, Sasuke was...pretty well endowed, but not exaggeratingly so, his aroused member curving perfectly upwards in Itachi's palm. Naruto was only a tiny bit smaller, but thicker than him, the organ leaning ever so slightly to the left. The two young men in front of him broke the kiss as he moved both his hands at the same time to pleasure them tentatively.  
  
"Someone is having fun exploring," Naruto teased, pecking his mouth chastely and tucking a strand of Itachi's long hair behind his ear, the gesture allowing him to take a brief whiff of Sasuke's essence in his fingers.   
  
"What do you want, Itachi?" Sasuke asked huskily, kissing his shoulder and caressing his back before grabbing a naked ass cheek firmly.  
  
"Whatever you two want is fine with me," Itachi answered with honesty. He had never been with two people at the same time, so he didn't know what to expect, even though, if he did have the choice, he'd love to be able to multiply himself in four so he could fuck them and be fucked by them at the same time.  
  
Naruto hummed, lips against his jaw. "I want to fuck  _you_. Are you  _fine_  with it?"  
  
It wasn't like Itachi had bottomed much in his life, not because he particularly objected to it, but because the situation simply didn't present itself every day. After wanting them for so long, he was seriously open to trying anything.  
  
Taking Itachi's silence as an affirmation, Naruto snorted happily before slapping his hand away from his cock. He got up quickly, going around the two of them and, and opening the sliding door of his wardrobe.  
  
Itachi heaved a content sigh, wondering if he had gotten himself drunk without noticing. He knew, now, that he wanted this. Not just tonight, but every single night after that, with both of them. He just wanted to feel, to give and to take, to love and be loved.  
  
Sasuke was torturing his shoulder, now, offering small, intense bites before licking the abused spot soothingly as he teased the crack between Itachi’s ass cheeks with the tips of his fingers. Itachi re-positioned himself so that they were in front of each other. They then kissed languidly as Itachi proceeded stroking Sasuke’s cock in that lazy rhythm, his other hand grabbing hold of the spiky, but silky hairs in the back of his neck.   
  
Before he noticed what he was doing, Itachi was pressing himself against Sasuke and pushing him backwards until he was lying down underneath him, the older man settling comfortably between invitingly opened legs that surrounded his waist possessively, pulling him close.  
  
Itachi had a hard time processing rationally just how good their bodies felt like that.  
  
Lips broke the contact. Itachi’s right hand was supporting his weight on the floor beside Sasuke’s head now, and the other one shifted so that it was caressing Sasuke’s belly, the muscles trembling slightly at the touch as he moved it upwards still, to Sasuke’s smooth chest. His fingers were leaving trails of Sasuke’s pre-cum along the way.  
  
When fingers pinched his left nipple, the younger Uchiha was predictably responsive, hissing under his breath and arching up, causing their cocks to come into full contact. Itachi couldn’t help his own moan, leaning down to nibble on Sasuke’s shoulder as he pressed down to meet the other man’s request, rubbing their erections together.  
  
There was another presence near him, so strong he could sense it even before Naruto settled on his knees behind him. Rough palms ran over one ass cheek as teeth sunk into the other one roughly.  
  
Then, before Itachi knew what was happening, said ass cheeks were being pushed to the side, and something wet was unceremoniously running over his most intimate hidden spot, the suddenness making him shiver from head to toe.  
“Fucking…shit…!” He gasped, his head falling on Sasuke’s shoulder, his brother stroking his back and the top of his head affectionately.  
  
He wasn’t one to curse, but no one had ever done that to him, and it felt…weird, but not unpleasant, just very sensitive.  
  
Naruto sniggered and blew softly over the pucker. “Come on, ‘Tachi, lift your ass up a bit more so I can work my magic.”  
  
Itachi had no idea what Naruto’s ‘magic’ was, but Sasuke’s encouraging kiss to his temple made him swallow hard and lift his hips until his ass was up in the air. The position could be considered pretty humiliating, but he was too curious to feel ashamed.  
  
The youngest of the three massaged Itachi’s spine gently with one hand before going down once more. This time, he offered a few nibbles around the tiny hole before kissing it almost reverently. Then, he literally spit on it before attacking it savagely with his mouth, his tongue wasting no time in teasing the surrounding area with light flicks of his tongue.  
  
Itachi couldn’t help but to twitch, the unknown sensation too new but also too overwhelmingly good for words to describe. He knew his cock was fully hard now, lustful fluids leaking heavily all over Sasuke’s navel. When Naruto’s tongue teased its way inside the trembling pucker, Itachi had to bite down on Sasuke’s neck to keep himself from groaning at the feel of being penetrated by the soft muscle.  
  
He had never understood the appeal of a rim job until this very moment – it was highly pleasurable, and it stimulated his need for something more in his ass.  
  
Sasuke’s nails were scratching his chest – Itachi could feel his quick heartbeat in his pulse – his eyes surely watching the scene in amazement.  
  
Naruto seemed to be very content in fucking his anus with his tongue, forcing the entrance to relax, and for all the gods existing in the world, it felt  _good_.  
  
After several seconds of this, Naruto’s tongue was removed, allowing Itachi to breath.  
  
The gentle ‘pop’ of some sort of cap being opened echoed through the small apartment, followed by the ridiculous sound of something similar to a fart, and soon enough, something firm but slippery was being pressed against his hole once more – a lubricated finger. As the digit pressed inside, Sasuke brought a hand to Itachi’s cock and started pumping it, as if scared that he might go limp. It was almost funny, because, even though he had come not long before, he was already painfully hard in his excitement.  
  
A thin layer of sweat was forming all over his skin.  
  
His body had accepted Naruto’s full finger easily, the intrusion a tad bit uncomfortable, but not painful since he had already been relaxed by that devilish tongue. Naruto pulled the digit out a little before pushing it back in, the friction, as well as Sasuke’s attention to his cock causing a gasp to leave Itachi’s throat. Naruto did this a few more times before removing it completely and adding another finger.  
  
The world had suddenly begun to spin out of control, so Itachi found solace in Sasuke, his lips searching for those of his younger brother, who tilted his head to the side so they could kiss.  
  
He acknowledged that Sasuke wasn’t receiving much affection, but he couldn’t bring himself to act upon his desire to please him when he was being so thoroughly and blissfully molested by his two precious people.  
  
A third finger was added, bringing along the burning feeling of being stretched that also heightened the sensations in his sensitive muscles. Itachi moaned, shamelessly now, Sasuke’s lips sucking viciously on his tongue. Clearly, Naruto wasn’t trying to find his good spot, he was merely preparing him, but even without hitting his prostate, he was doing a terrific job.  
  
“Damn it…” Itachi swore, unconsciously moving his hips so that his ass was meeting Naruto’s movements and Sasuke’s strokes.   
  
“You look really good like this, Itachi,” Sasuke whispered, a smirk evident in his voice as his free hand caressed his sweaty cheek. “I want you to fuck me so badly…”  
  
Closing his eyes, Itachi’s whole being shook with what seemed like psychological orgasm as something wild coursed through him from head to toe, making him release a loud groan. Fuck, he was burning all over.  
  
Naruto’s fingers were no longer in him, and only after processing this did Itachi realize that his assistant was now kneeling beside him and that Sasuke wasn’t stroking him anymore.  
  
“Sasuke, hold this,” Naruto said, and his hands were helping Itachi to get off of Sasuke just a bit and straighten up. Naruto kissed him hungrily, Itachi responding eagerly, happy to feel the familiar taste once more. When Naruto broke the contact, Itachi heard him leaning down to kiss Sasuke as well. They whispered something to each other that he couldn’t understand.  
  
Not long after that, Itachi felt something in the tip of his cock – a mouth – but it didn’t feel like a mouth, at all. The thing engulfed him expertly, deep throating him in one go, but not as wetly as he had hoped, nor with the sensual grace of Sasuke's previous blowjob, and just like that, it was over.   
  
“What are you doing?” he asked shakily to Naruto, feeling the air until his hand met the top of Naruto’s head. He was being stroked again, the movements slow and slippery, but he couldn’t feel said slippery substance on his skin at all.  
  
“I just put a condom on you, with my mouth,” Naruto explained huskily, but clearly proud of his achievement. “And now I’m getting some lube on your cock. Sorry about the lack of romance and stuff, and I could’ve let you do this by yourself, but this is killing me, and I really can’t take it anymore.”  
  
 _Oh._    
  
Two pairs of eyes were staring at him with the same intensity. It was obvious what was going to happen next,  _how_  it was going to happen, and the sudden realization caused his brain to find the clarity needed. His euphoria subsided considerably at that, but it made him feel no less excited.  
  
For almost half of his existence as a human being, he had craved for Sasuke with his heart, body and soul. He loved him more than anything else in the world, there was no questioning it, and in truth, he had dreamed about their bodies becoming one so many times that it was actually embarrassing.   
  
His love for Naruto was different, but no less intense, so the prospect of having sex with him seemed natural and sounded welcoming.  
  
With Sasuke, though, things were a bit different, and  _felt_  different, too. Sasuke was his brother, and in a way, somewhere deep inside his mind, he was still his cute little sibling, clean, pure, and unblemished. Of course he was more than aware that Sasuke was a highly open-minded, sexual person, but that didn’t stop Itachi from feeling like he was somehow going something that, to him, had always been forbidden and sacred.  
  
Both Naruto and Sasuke seemed to notice his hesitance, because his assistant had surrounded his shoulders with one arm, pressing light, soothing kisses over his jaw, while the other Uchiha sat down and hugged his torso.  
  
“What is it?” Sasuke inquired in a gentle murmur, pressing his lips to his chest before tilting his head back to look at him.   
  
“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Naruto reassured him, a hint of regret marking his voice, letting Itachi know he was internally reprimanding himself for being so straightforward. “You want to stop?”  
  
Itachi couldn’t help but sigh, a tiny smile making his mouth curve.   
  
“I’m not a virgin, so stop coddling me,” he reprimanded, nodding his head from side to side, his fingers combing through Sasuke’s bangs before his thumb brushed lightly over his cheekbone. With his other hand, he pulled Naruto close so that he could surround his waist with his arm and bury his nose behind his ear, smelling the mixture of aftershave, grass and alcohol, so different from Sasuke’s rich, clean and aristocratic scent, but no less intoxicating.   
  
It felt right to have them in his arms like that. For the first time since forever, Itachi felt safe, comfortable, like his purpose in life was to be there. He felt like he finally belonged.  
  
He kissed Naruto passionately, their mouths and tongues meeting over and over again. Sasuke released him, but Itachi was vaguely aware of him licking sloppily at Naruto’s hip bone.  
  
After a while, they broke the kiss and Naruto breathed in deeply. When he spoke, his voice was low and breathy against Itachi’s. “He likes it rough, so don’t bother prepping him. He feels amazing; you’re going to love it.”  
  
Itachi nodded, anticipation filling his chest. Sasuke had apparently lain down once more, and Naruto was now moving to assume his kneeling position behind the eldest of the three.  
  
Itachi let his body fall on top of Sasuke’s carefully, once more settling between his thighs, both hands on the floor on each side of his head. The position offered a welcomed relief to his knees, that only then he noticed were hurting. His hair fell forward, brushing over the skin of Sasuke’s neck and chest.  
  
Sasuke touched his face softly, his legs tugging him close, inviting him.  
  
“Come on,” he whispered, alluringly, but in a surprisingly innocent tone, lifting his hips higher. “Please, Itachi…”  
  
Itachi nodded once more, his eyes closing when Sasuke sneaked a hand between them to position his cock over his entrance. He hadn’t checked to see if he was properly lubricated, but he supposed he would have to trust Naruto’s competence on it.  
  
Breathing in, Itachi pushed in slowly until the head of his cock had crossed the first ring of muscles. Sasuke hissed, clamping so tightly around him that it seemed impossible that he had ever bottomed before. Itachi’s arms were shaking from the effort he was making to not just slam his way in, but he didn’t want to hurt Sasuke on their first time, so he pulled out a bit before pushing in again, repeating the process a few times until he felt him relaxing around him.  
  
Sasuke’s hands were on his shoulders, gripping them strongly as he moaned, sounding both pained and frustrated, but his breathing, it seemed, was too fast for him to want to voice anything.  
  
There were loving lips at the top of the writer’s spine, now, Naruto’s body covering his from behind almost completely. Naruto’s own lube and condom covered erection had settled perfectly between his ass cheeks, and his assistant’s hands were possessively caressing his sides, then shifting to caress Sasuke’s legs. It was hard for Itachi to move with the added weight on top of him, but he kept on thrusting, even more cautiously now that he didn’t have complete control of the situation.   
  
Sasuke was probably the tightest person Itachi had ever penetrated in his life, and it was amazing. Everything felt amazing at that point, Naruto’s presence only intensifying it.  
  
Before he knew what was going on, Naruto’s stiff hardness was probing at his entrance, slipping inside all the way rather easily thanks to all the previous prepping. Still, Naruto wasn’t exactly small, and the intrusion was something Itachi wasn’t accustomed to. It stung; he felt more stretched that what should be allowed and he felt…so absurdly full that Naruto’s length seemed to reach his stomach, which was ridiculous train of thought, of course. Itachi stilled his movements, trying to force his body to accommodate his lover, which earned him an impatient grunt from Sasuke.  
  
Naruto’s hands were shaking in his hips, his sweaty, slippery chest on top of his back, but he still chuckled and pulled out, the action relieving Itachi for a bit.  
  
“You have no idea what you’re getting yourlsef into, do you?” Naruto whispered, in his ear. “What did I tell you about him liking it rough? You have much to learn, baby.”  
  
With that, Naruto pushed in rather brusquely, the force of it forcing Itachi to push forward as well, consequentially burying himself to the hilt inside Sasuke, who fidgeted in shock.  
  
“Fuck!” the younger Uchiha grunted breathlessly. “Fuck, shit, hell,  _motherfucker_ …!”  
  
Itachi had lost the ability to breathe altogether, because Sasuke’s heat was engulfing him so completely, squeezing him as if it wanted to swallow him whole.  
  
He was inside Sasuke. Naruto was inside  _him_.  
  
Something very similar to a brain seizure might have occurred in him at how simply perfect that situation was – none of his fantasies could ever compare to this. Gods, would he even be able to move at all? Would he hold out enough to make Sasuke cum? He was so stupidly hard already, so close…  
  
Sasuke pulled him down brusquely and they kissed, awkwardly as if they were both in a drunken stupor, his brother moving his hips anxiously to incite him to move.  
  
And Naruto was laughing in self-gratification. He kissed the back of Itachi’s head and decided to take matters in his own hands – he wasted no time in thrusting in and out of Itachi, slowly at first, to let him get used to the feeling, then a bit faster, then  _deeper_.  
  
Itachi felt him hitting his good spot dead on. The new found pleasure bundle inside him catapulted him to a new level of awareness, surprising him with the overwhelming urge to feel more, to have more, faster, right  _now_.  
  
Even though he was still pretty shaken from the storm of physical and emotional chaos inside of him, he found out that he was no longer able to hold himself back.  
  
Ignoring Naruto’s rhythm for the time being, he started to thrust in his own pace, languidly for lack of enough space to move freely, but making sure he was at least able to get all the way inside Sasuke when he pushed in, and that he pulled out enough so that only the head remained in. Sasuke wasn’t shy in moaning his contentment in Itachi’s open mouth, as he held Itachi close.  
  
Naruto was panting, fucking him all the same and quickly adjusting himself to Itachi’s pace, thrusting in when Itachi pulled out of Sasuke, and it was stroppy at first, clumsy even, because it seemed like they wanted to achieve some kind of perfect balance. However, they didn’t need to say a word to agree that it was useless. It made no difference what they did or didn’t, because Sasuke had his way of responding to Itachi, and Itachi had his own way of responding to Naruto, so all it mattered, really, was them enjoying themselves to the fullest.  
  
Not long after the struggle, Itachi decided to say ‘fuck it’ in his own mind, and just do what he wanted to do, how he wanted to do it.  
  
He plunged in hard, as hard as he could, once, twice, marveled at the low, sinful moans Sasuke emitted and at the way his nails dug in his shoulder blades, and all the while, Naruto was glued to his back, biting down along his back, occasionally huffing both their names, sometimes taking the chance to suck on Sasuke’s fingers, and then offering quick licks to the back of Itachi’s ears.  
  
The three of them were sweating now, skin sliding over skin in delicious friction. The air smelled of rubber, lube and sex. Like a drug, it invaded their senses.  
  
The pleasure, the pure exhilaration of it was out of this world. Being inside Sasuke and having Naruto’s cock up his ass provided a new level of ecstasy he had never even dreamt he would, or even  _could_  feel. He tried to get as much of Naruto as he could, but there was no way in hell that he was going so stop filling Sasuke’s delightful tightness.   
  
When Itachi leaned down to run his tongue over one of Sasuke’s lips, his brother twitched beneath him, gripping his forearms desperately. “I’m…ngh…I’m almost…Oh, shit…”  
  
Listening to him pleading like that, gasping in such a needy fashion filled Itachi’s heart with affection as a wave of impending heat pooled in his loins. If only it was possible for him to wrap himself around Sasuke completely, he’d do it. He wanted to lick him, kiss him, caress him and fuck him, all at the same time, just as he wished Naruto could to that to him at that precise moment.  
  
He didn’t need a coherent request, because Sasuke’s legs, spreading wider, still, in such a shameless way, told him everything he needed to know. With his right hand, he reached between them to stroke Sasuke’s eager cock quickly, making sure he didn’t stop fucking him in the process, even though he felt absurdly close himself.  
  
Sasuke came almost immediately with a sharp intake of breath, a dry, long sound coming from the back of his throat as he released his load, coating himself as well as Itachi’s hand and chest with his warm fluids. He seemed to clench and unclench around Itachi forever, and in spite of himself, the writer found his own climax assaulting him like a typhoon, so he took advantage of Sasuke’s heavenly squeeze – he wanted to make it good, so he didn’t hesitate in letting go, fucking Sasuke with all he had and simultaneously pushing back on Naruto’s cock in search for that heightened pleasure.   
  
Naruto was saying something in between pants. Itachi didn’t understand a word, but he had sounded positively erotic.  
  
The rush that coursed through him was so strong that it almost felt painful in a wonderful, sort of masochistic way, and he literally growled as he emptied himself into the condom he was wearing, the protection thankfully not distracting from that fucking amazing shelter that was the inside of Sasuke’s body.  
  
Itachi stilled, the left arm that held him up going numb from keeping his upper body in the air.  
  
It took a moment for him to regain some semblance of composure. Sasuke was breathing fast and loudly underneath him, and Naruto was still riding him hard. It was uncomfortable for Itachi, now that he had cum, so he voiced his protest with a soft grunt but didn’t exactly want for him to stop because he wanted Naruto to cum, too.  
  
In a contented daze, he realized that he was still holding Sasuke’s softening cock and that there was Sasuke’s load all over the place, probably in his hair, too. Smirking a little, he licked the cum in his fingers and then leaned down to run his flat tongue over Sasuke’s chest, the organ meeting the substance immediately – it tasted salty and slightly bitter, too, but not at all unpleasant.  
  
The younger Uchiha’s hand now in the back of his neck, Itachi allowed himself to be guided over Sasuke’s torso to the soiled spots, promptly licking them clean. Why did Sasuke have to be so sexy?  
  
Naruto released a curse between clenched teeth and soon he, too, was cumming. The way he pulsed and swelled inside Itachi was a bit painful, and yet, made Itachi feel filled and accomplished.  
  
Once he was done, Naruto collapse on top of Itachi, who was forced to, in turn, collapse on top of Sasuke, unable to sustain both of them with his arm.  
The three of them just lay there, panting noisily for a few blissful minutes, neither wanting to break the silence until Sasuke grunted in displeasure.  
  
“This is all very romantic, but I’m being  _crushed_ ,” he protested, slapping Naruto’s arm. “Move, dumbass.”  
  
“But it’s comfy,” Naruto whimpered with his nose buried in Itachi's hair, being purposefully childish.  
  
“I can’t breathe,” Sasuke pressed on coolly.  
  
“Yeah, yeah…”  
  
Naruto got off Itachi, pulling out of him rather gracelessly - which made him cringe - and Itachi took the advantage to roll off Sasuke gently as well until he was lying on his back beside him, internally happy at the sound of loss his brother made when he had pulled out.   
  
Naruto lay down as well, on Itachi’s other side, wasting no time in placing his head over his chest, Sasuke mimicking him. Their hands joined over Itachi’s stomach, who hugged them both.  
  
Only now that his more coherent mind was returning did Itachi realize that the floor was not comfortable at all, too hard for his back, and definitely too hard for the back of his head. Still, he was too happy and feeling too lazy to move. There was no place he'd rather be, and we wouldn't trade that light lack of comfort with them for a fluffy bed without them by his side.  
  
“That was…awkward,” Sasuke replied thoughfully. “In a good, interesting way, I suppose. I really want to see in how many other ways the three of us can have sex, though.”  
  
Itachi sniggered.  
  
“I’m sure there’s some kind of threesome Kamasutra available somwhere,” he commented sarcastically.  
  
“This is it, right?” Naruto mumbled, lifting his head up to look at Itachi. “You’ll be with us from now on, won’t you?”  
  
Sasuke was caressing Naruto’s hand, but apart from that, he was horribly still.  
  
Itachi’s heart skipped a beat.  
  
“You do know that it’s not going to be easy,” he said carefully. “It’s not like something like this is natural. I don’t care about what other people think, but I don’t think it’s wise to advertise it, either. It's not like we can just…express this kind of relationship outdoors.”  
  
“We’re all grownups, we know this; we know how to behave,” Naruto confirmed, with a nod. “But I don’t think that things are going to change all that much apart from the fact that we’ll all be happier.”  
  
Itachi smiled.  
  
“I suppose that’s true,” he agreed  
  
“Do you feel happier?” Sasuke asked him lowly, lifting his head up as well. “Is this what you really want?”  
  
Itachi sighed.  
  
“This is what I have always wanted, but…I didn’t realize how much I needed you…the two of you until I felt that I was losing you,” he admitted, solemnly. “And I’m so sorry, Sasuke, for making you hurt for all these years.”  
  
Sasuke heaved an exasperated sigh.  
  
“It was worth the wait,” he ended up saying, a smile gracing his voice. “We got to keep Naruto, too.”  
  
“I’m not a dog!” Naruto protested, laughing good humoredly. “But I think we’ll do just fine. We have time to get used to this, and then maybe a few years from now, when I’m done with college and Sasuke has turned into a great composer, we can move to the countryside or something and start living together? Whatever happens, I know it’ll be awesome. It's not as complicated as it seems.”  
  
With his two muses cradled in his arms, filling him with perfect warmth, making him feel loved and needed, Itachi could truly say that he had no more doubts in his mind, no more fears of hesitations. He didn’t know what the future had in store for them, if they would even last enough to dream of the years ahead, but he knew that, for now, he felt safe and confident, and after everything they had gone through, he had every right to believe and take hope in Naruto’s words.  
  
And he did.  
  
All he had to do now, was let himself be happy, and make sure he made Sasuke and Naruto happy, too.  
  
He was more than eager to make up for all the lost time and enjoy life in the fullest.  
  
For the first time in his life, he could see things more clearly than ever.  
  


**\- The End -**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the official ending, but, as stated at the beginning of this story, I will be writing an extra somewhere in the near future, so look forward to it!
> 
> Until then!


	6. Itachi & Sasuke - Extra I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was supposed to be a one-shot, but it was getting too big, so I decided to post this bit beforehand. I got carried away as I reminded myself how much I loved these three and how much impact this story had on me. 
> 
> ANYWAY. I hope returning to this story will make you as happy as it made me.
> 
> Not betaed.

** Unmei No Koe  
**  
**Extra I**  
  
**(ItachixSasuke)**

  
The porch at the back of his parents' house was always one of Itachi's favorite places to relax, and even in his thirties, that hadn't changed one bit. He remembered playing there with Sasuke when they were kids – the wooden floors would be filled with toys – and sometimes, they would both help their mother tending to the small garden she was so fond of. After all those years, the familiar flowery scents still remained, an indication that Mikoto still took great care of her precious flowers.  
  
It was a nice, warm Saturday afternoon, and Itachi was more than thankful for having chosen to wear a t-shirt and some plain jeans. His legs were stretched out in front of him, his feet laying on the grass of the garden as he supported the weight of his body on his elbows, which he rested on the steps behind him. He could hear the birds chirping happily over the sky above, and he felt completely content and at peace. Life was good, he was in love, but mostly, he was happy because, after years of constantly agonizing over his unhealthy feelings for his younger brother, he had finally come to terms with himself by accepting his place at Sasuke's side. This was only possible thanks to the light that was Naruto, his personal assistant and friend, and Sasuke's admitted lover – or at least this is what people from the outside knew. At some point, Naruto had come to become important to both Uchiha brothers and, apparently, the feeling was mutual. They made a complicated threesome, but after having a taste, neither of them could settle for less.  
  
It would sound crazy to anyone but them, but there was love no matter how you looked at it. Still, they had to go through a good few experimental months before they could say the relationship was here to stay since so much was at stake. For all purposes, jealousy and pettiness could come in play. Thankfully, the three seemed to be hanging up well and facing everything with surprising maturity considering the situation. Well, apart from Sasuke's and Naruto's constant bickering, but that wasn't going to change any time soon, and since they seemed to get some sort of thrill out of it, Itachi didn't mind. Besides, it was obvious that they cared deeply for each other.  
  
Which meant that Uchiha Itachi was at particularly good stage of his life and he couldn't feel happier or more fulfilled if he tried.  
  
It had taken a while for him and Sasuke to finally decide to visit their parents and bring Naruto along. Obviously, the blond was introduced as his friend and assistant _and_ as Sasuke's boyfriend, but that was something they already knew couldn't change. It wasn't like they could simply tell their parents that they shared Naruto, and definitely not like they could tell them that the three of them were involved. Although, sometimes Itachi wondered how they would explain to people if, someday, the three of them were to move in together. But that wouldn't happen anytime soon so, for now, they were okay.  
  
The sound of naked footsteps alerted him of someone's approach, and he recognized them as being Sasuke's from the confident but careful steps. There was a strong presence right behind him before he felt a light kiss being placed on the top of his head. Sighing, Itachi closed his eyes as Sasuke moved from behind him to sit down beside him. Itachi felt the skin of Sasuke's uncovered arm against his as his younger brother leaned slightly on him.  
  
"Are you okay?" Sasuke inquired quietly, resting his chin over Itachi's shoulder. "You're here all by yourself."  
  
"I've never been better," Itachi said easily, opening his eyes and turning his face to the side so he could plant a small kiss on Sasuke's forehead. "I was merely reminiscing. How are things going with our parents and Naruto?"  
  
"Terrific," Sasuke mumbled dryly, and by the tone of his voice, the writer could imagine that he'd rolled his eyes. "They're officially in love with him, I think. I'd never expect for him to grow on father so quickly, though. The three of them are really bonding; I actually felt left out, reason why I decided to look for you."  
  
Itachi couldn't help but smile. "Naruto is someone easy to love."  
  
"I suppose," Sasuke agreed, moving away a bit to straighten up. Itachi could feel him move beside him, leaning backwards against the steps. "I wonder what mom and dad would say if they knew what was going on between the three of us."  
  
"I was just wondering the same thing," Itachi admitted, heaving a small, but relaxed sigh.  
  
A small breeze brushed their faces and bodies gently as a companionable silence settled between them.  
  
Itachi was sure that being in their parents' house was also nostalgic for Sasuke – after all, they were brought up there. Even if, at some point, both of them had stopped relating to that small town, truth was, they had been happy there in spite of everything. Their family was very close, and their parents had always been caring and understanding, even if a bit traditional, but even those things changed when Itachi came out of the closet, followed closely by Sasuke's own confession of being a free spirit, so to speak.  
  
Whether they liked it or not – Itachi understood that no parent would willing wish for a non-straight son if given the choice – Fugaku and Mikoto had accepted them and loved them all the same. It had been rough on them, but in the end, love was more important than their hopes and dreams for their children, and for that, Itachi was immensely grateful. He and Sasuke had had the kind of support from their parents many would die to have. They still had, even if Fugaku would sometimes criticize this and that while Mikoto would mourn the lack of a daughter-in-law and grandchildren.  
  
Still, it was good that they liked Naruto. It made Itachi happy, but it also pained him because he had been forced to hear him and Sasuke as they told their parents stories about their relationship as a couple and not-really-made-up plans for their future as lovers.  
  
"What do you think they'd say?" Sasuke suddenly asked, breaking the silence. "If they knew about us?"  
  
"I don't know," Itachi said, honestly. "But they would probably not be as accepting as they were about everything else. I mean, it's not just a three way relationship; you and I are brothers. I don't think mother deserves another heartbreak, to be honest. And father would, most definitely, disown us this time."  
  
Sasuke didn't say anything for a while, his aura calm and pensive. After a while, he said "Sometimes, I feel like I want to tell them. I know it's not something natural, but… I think they should know. Even if they do disown us. Even if they don't want to see us again, I feel like I need to tell them the way I feel; that I'm happy because now I am where I want to be, with the people I want to be with."  
  
"I understand your point of view," Itachi replied, slowly, trying to ignore the pang of hurt in his chest. "But you don't mean that. You love our parents, and so do I. I was very impulsive when I told them about my sexuality, and I thought I would be okay no matter their reaction. But today…" Itachi shook his head from side to side. "I don't want to risk losing them, even if I, too, wish we could tell them."  
  
"You're right," Sasuke huffed. "I just… it sucks that we always have to, you know... pretend and hide all the time."  
  
"This is the path we chose," the writer said simply, turning his face to Sasuke once more and offering him a small smile. "No-one said it was going to be easy. At least you have Naruto as your official lover, right? You can go on dates and be affectionate in public, so not all is bad."  
  
"Yeah, but I still feel bad for all of us," Sasuke confessed. He shifted a bit so that the side of his body was pressed more firmly against Itachi's as he linked one arm with Itachi's, their hips glued. "Naruto is always jumping back and forth between us, and lately, we've all been so busy that it seems like the three of us can't get together properly. And I don't know what the hell happened with my time with you. Ever since I started dating him it's just crazy."  
  
Itachi understood where Sasuke was coming from. Naruto had just started college but he was still working for him, so they saw each other every day, but not as often outside of working hours. Sasuke was becoming solicited rather frequently now that he was working on the soundtrack for a movie, so it was often Naruto that would meet him at the end of the day at his working place since he was so busy. Sometimes, the two would go to Itachi's afterwards so the three could spend some time together, but this was a rare occurrence nowadays, with Sasuke working late and Naruto having to study.  
  
Those two were privileged, in a way, because they didn't have to look for excuses to be together or sleep at each other's places every day. It was Itachi that had to wait for them to meet him. Well, not Naruto. He and Naruto had the occasional sexy moment in the office in spite of Itachi's will to keep personal relationships out of his working place. But it wasn't exactly like they could help themselves when they rarely had the time to enjoy each other.  
  
But if he had to be honest with himself, he had forgotten the last time he and Sasuke had been _alone_ together. In fact he doubted they _ever_ did have a moment for each other ever since the three started dating.  
  
It wasn't like it particularly bothered him. He wasn't jealous of the time Sasuke and Naruto spent together without him, like he was sure Sasuke was alright with him and the blond seeing each other every day without him around.  
  
It was just…  
  
Itachi frowned. Okay, so maybe it _did_ bother him a little bit. It wasn't jealousy, no, it just didn't feel right. It was fine if the three of them were together, but it didn't seem right if they were forced to be in pairs and then one of the pairs didn't happen at all. And right now, it was either the three of them together, Naruto and Sasuke, or Naruto and Itachi. There was no Sasuke and Itachi.  
  
Something just had to be wrong with the world, because this whole mess had started because of them, and still, they had yet to spent time alone together as lovers. Just the two of them.  
  
"What's with that face?" Sasuke inquired worriedly. "You look like you're thinking too much."  
  
Itachi blinked a few times, taken aback by the way his brother's voice made his heart speed up suddenly. It reminded him of how much he loved him and how almost half of his life was dedicated to that single, all-consuming feeling.  
  
"Nothing," he said quietly.  
  
Would Naruto be offended if he knew Itachi's thoughts? It seemed wrong to want to be with Sasuke particularly when the three of them had a relationship. He was supposed to want to give it all to the two of them, equally. Itachi didn't feel less for Naruto, though, it was just something he felt like he and Sasuke needed. They had wanted each other before they even knew the blond existed, they should be given the right to just… be together.  
  
"Ah, now I feel selfish," Itachi muttered out loud, chuckling bitterly.  
  
"About what?" Sasuke asked, sounding confused.  
  
Itachi smiled again. "It's nothing, I'm just thinking about what you said, that's all," he replied, grabbing the hand of the arm Sasuke had linked with his and intertwining their fingers together. "I wish things could be different, Sasuke. Maybe someday. Right now, we just have to be glad for what we have, right? Maybe we can take some vacations sometime this year and the three of us could go somewhere faraway from here?"  
  
"It would have to be some place we'd know no one would recognize us," Sasuke agreed, a teasing tone causing his voice to soften. "Where the three of us could be together freely. I'd totally dye my hair and wear colored contact lenses if I had to so I could be able to kiss you in public."  
  
Itachi laughed, feeling his chest swell up with emotion just from feeling Sasuke's thumb caressing his fingers. "I still don't think people will be receptive of three men together no matter where we go."  
  
"Who cares, as long as they mind their own business and leave us be," Sasuke said, with obnoxious excitement. "Some countries even have, like, gay communities in certain towns, you know? I doubt anyone would even look twice our way if we had sex in the middle of the street. Or, if they did, it'd probably be to appreciate how hot the three of us are."  
  
Shaking his head from side to side, Itachi let out a short laugh. For years he had longed to see the enthusiastic child Sasuke had been – the one that dared to dream and make silly plans about a future he couldn't predict, but was certain he would pursue. The kiss they had shared as teenagers had done more than simply disturb their relationship – it had changed Sasuke in ways that, at the time, seemed irreversible.  
  
In spite of everything that had happened between them since then, and in spite of how complicated their current relationship was – Naruto included – Itachi couldn't help but to notice how Sasuke seemed happier and brighter than before, even with his unchanging strong personality and bad temper. Sasuke was incredibly thoughtful and sentimental in the most surprising moments, because if there was one thing he truly knew, was how to love unconditionally.  
  
"Your imagination has certainly been going wild lately," Itachi commented, turning his face to Sasuke again and feeling the other placing his chin over his shoulder once more, causing their foreheads to touch. "But I don't think that's a bad thing at all. At least we have something to look forward to."  
  
Sasuke gave Itachi's hand a small squeeze. "Whatever. I already have something to look forward to every day, anyway. I have the two of you. It doesn't matter if those things never happen."  
  
Smiling a bit, Itachi nodded. "I'm happy no matter what."  
  
"Me too," Sasuke's words came accompanied by a warm whisper that brushed Itachi's lips. The eldest of the two could feel Sasuke's tongue flicking out to moisten his lips before saying "I'm going to kiss you, now."  
  
The statement caused small sparks of familiar excitement to run all over Itachi's body. It really wasn't the right place, but in moments like these, when Sasuke was near him and they were able to simply connect like this, it seemed worth it. His smile grew and he couldn't help but risk leaning forward just a bit, feeling Sasuke tilting up his head enough so their lips could meet halfway in a chaste kiss.  
  
These were the moments he felt the happiest – this was why, no matter what, it was all worth it; because he wasn't scared. He understood Sasuke's determination, his seemingly fearless attitude – what they had wasn't something easily broken. As long as they were together, he knew everything would be alright.  
  


000

  
Standing in front of the sink in the kitchen, Naruto was looking out through the window in front of him to the porch where his two lovers were. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards in a lopsided smile as he watched the brothers whisper intimately among themselves before joining their mouths in a chaste kiss. Absently drying a plate with a kitchen cloth, he observed with growing interest and affection as the seemingly innocent kiss intensified, lips sliding over lips languidly and consistently becoming more lewd. Naruto could see their tongues meeting over and over again with swift and glorious coordination that showed exactly how familiar those two had become in the past few months.  
  
Naruto chewed on his lower lip. No words could describe how happy those two made him. It wasn't just the fact that they were his lovers – both Itachi and Sasuke had turned his life upside down and given him everything he had ever wanted and more, and he didn't mean financially. He had love, a family, and all the encouragement he needed to pursue his dreams.  
  
He knew their relationship wasn't what most people would consider 'normal', and maybe it wasn't. Maybe he was crazy for loving those two, and maybe he was even crazier for loving them together, even if they were brothers. But he did. He loved them both as much as he loved the notion of them together. Seeing Itachi and Sasuke like this, unafraid of reaching out for each other made Naruto feel accomplished like never before.  
  
If he were to be honest with himself, even if he had fallen in love with Itachi first, as soon as Sasuke had entered the picture Naruto had been instantly drawn to him. Itachi was a composed, intelligent and mature man. He was charming in a rather polite but mysterious way and sensual in his elegant handsomeness. Sasuke, on the other hand, had more refined features to the point of being beautiful, and his rebellious, nonchalant demeanor was unintentionally sexy. He didn't particularly care for a lot of people, which made him arrogant and unmindful of other people's feelings and opinions.  
  
This was something that had annoyed Naruto at first. He didn't like Sasuke's attitude, didn't like the fact that he found the Uchiha extremely attractive, and more than anything, didn't like the fact that Sasuke was the wall between himself and Itachi. Sasuke had never hidden his interest towards his older brother, and neither did he ignore the fact that he knew Itachi liked Naruto. If anything, this made them both very curious about each other.  
  
So, instead of becoming somewhat rivals in love, the two young men found solace in the common fact that neither had chances of being with Itachi. Their relationship had been rocky from the beginning, but the chemistry had been equally intense. Naruto couldn't remember the precise moment Sasuke had entered his heart, but before he knew it, the younger Uchiha mattered just as much as Itachi.  
  
Becoming lovers had felt right, and it helped that they knew that it was affecting Itachi on a deep level. That's when Naruto's plan of pushing the eldest Uchiha's buttons came to life, working towards the outcome the three desired.  
  
There was no doubt in Naruto's mind that his feelings for the Uchiha brothers were reciprocated. He knew that their love for him was different from the love they had for each other, but that was something he knew he could never compete against. They loved him – had chosen him and accepted him, and that was all that mattered. However, he often wondered what would've happened if Itachi hadn't given in and accepted to be with them. Somehow, he was sure that the writer would've probably find a way to distance himself completely at some point. It was a sad train of thought.  
  
Naruto placed the plate over the counter and picked up another one from the pile he had been washing inside the sink, drying it with the kitchen cloth.  
  
There was no denying that things were difficult for the three of them, but it was worth it. Every day, every moment they spent together, was worth it. They had been brought together by fate, and nothing could destroy such a strong link. That was what kept him motivated, that's what made him endure all the longing and frustration he went through every day. Even if it saddened him that he might have to spend the rest of his days hiding from the world, for them, he was willing to do it.  
  
Sasuke and Itachi had stopped kissing now, and were simply sitting close – or so Naruto assumed, since they had their backs to him. Sasuke's head was resting on Itachi's shoulder, and from his body language, he seemed pretty relaxed.  
  
"They like each other a lot, don't they?"  
  
Even though the tone had been low and gentle, Uchiha Mikoto's voice startled Naruto so much he jumped violently, almost dropping the plate. He fumbled clumsily with it for a bit, struggling desperately to grab hold of it it until he finally had a steady grip. He held it tight to his chest as if his life depended on it, heart beating so wildly against his ribcage he thought he might have a heart attack.  
  
Breathing quickly, his eyes were huge as he turned around and saw the small, but elegant woman. She was looking out the window as well, looking calm and thoughtful.  
  
_How long has she been here?_ He thought restlessly. Then, panic rose in his gut. _Did she see them?_  
  
She was supposed to be upstairs with her husband, taking a long distance phone call or something like that, but Naruto had probably spaced out for far longer than he had anticipated, and so lost in his thoughts had he been that he hadn't even been able to notice her approach.  
  
"It's not what it looks like, Mikoto-san!" he blurted out desperately, causing her dark grey eyes – that Sasuke had inherited – to look at him in vague questioning.  
  
"What exactly are you referring to?" She inquired gently, looking curious.  
  
Naruto gapped, his mouth moving but no sound emerging. Had she seen them kiss? They weren't doing anything _right now_ , but there was no denying that they were sitting _really_ close. Closer than two grown man should, definitely.  
  
He closed his mouth, not really wanting to say the wrong thing since, apparently, he almost did. She was probably just making a random comment, there was no need to freak out. In fact, if she had seen something, she probably wouldn't be this calm.  
  
So, Naruto merely shook his head from side to side. She offered him a small, beautiful smile and took the plate from his hands, setting it down on top of the others that were already dried. She then took his kitchen cloth from his hands and elegantly moved to stand beside him, seemingly bent on finishing the task he probably should've completed a while ago as she picked up a glass.  
  
Unsure of what to do, Naruto kept throwing tense glances outside to make sure Sasuke and Itachi were behaving.  
  
He really liked Mikoto and Fugaku. They accepted him and his relationship with Sasuke rather easily, even if Fugaku himself was a stern man that rarely smiled or even bothered to soften his voice so it wouldn't sound so hostile. But it was just the way he was, Naruto supposed. After all, talking to him and been surprisingly easy. Mikoto, on the other hand, was the sweetest woman Naruto had ever met – gentle, warm and caring. It was clear that both parents loved their children, and Naruto couldn't, for a moment, think of anything worse than to disrupt that peace and loving environment.  
  
"You are so exuberant, and yet, you're strangely quiet, now," Mikoto pointed out, after a while, looking at him sideways with that small smile playing on her lips.  
  
Naruto cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "It's nothing, I'm just… distracted," he said, forcing out a chuckle. "Lunch made me a bit sluggish, I suppose."  
  
Mikoto sighed and looked out the window, grabbing for another glass. "You don't have to be nervous, Naruto-kun. I didn't need to see whatever it was they were doing before I got here to know what's going on." Naruto couldn't help but gasp, and she quirked up an eyebrow at him. "You honestly think a mother wouldn't be able to tell when their children's dynamics change?"  
  
The blond felt all oxygen drain from his lungs at the admission. He felt helpless all of a sudden, and awfully guilty for some reason. They had been lying to her all this time, with her apparently knowing about it. Not only that, she _knew_.  
  
_Holy fuck. She knows…_  
  
A new form of panic made his stomach flip unpleasantly and he felt both helpless and sick. He wanted to say something, anything to deny it, but he didn't want to make a fool out of himself and say things he wasn't supposed to.  
  
"Calm down, this isn't news to me," Mikoto said easily, shrugging with grace. "When they were teenagers, their relationship changed dramatically, and I didn't know what had happened or how to fix it." She frowned, looking as if she was recalling those times. "And then, Itachi's first book came out and I understood everything. It wasn't easy for me to deal with it. I didn't know how to approach them on the subject. I still don't. But I guess that, at some point, I dismissed it as some kind of hormonal incident. After all, they had always been very close. I thought it would subside at some point as Sasuke grew older."  
  
Naruto shoved his hands inside his pockets in awkward uneasiness as she spoke. He felt terribly uncomfortable around her all of a sudden, and it wasn't something he enjoyed feeling. She seemed pretty laid back, but he feared that she might lash out at him or ask questions he didn't feel like answering. As a mother, Naruto couldn't even begin to understand how she felt, but he knew he was ready to defend Itachi's and Sasuke's feelings to the very end if he had to, even if the prospect didn't appeal to him much.  
  
"I guess… even though I prayed and prayed… I suppose some things truly are meant to happen," Mikoto said, her voice falling to a whisper as her eyes fell to her hands. "I've watched them dance around each other for so long. More than that, I've seen the way they suffered during all these years. But they look so happy, now. I never thought I'd see that light in their eyes again." She looked up at Naruto again, looking confused. "I can tell you care deeply about them. So what is your role in this? Are you their cover up?"  
  
And then, her expression changed and she seemed sad on Naruto's behalf, which actually made him smile hesitantly.  
  
"That's not it at all," he said truthfully, but carefully choosing his words. "I… I do… _care_ about both of them very much. I was the one who made it so they could be together." He scratched the back of his head now, his feet restless. If he could bury himself in a hole in the ground, he would. "It's complicated."  
  
She watched him for a moment in deep thought as she seemed to scrutinize him, her beautiful eyes narrowing slightly. After a while, her eyes softened dramatically and she released an understanding breath. "I see," she said, in a condescending murmur. "You are in love with them. But Sasuke, he's… he seems to genuinely love you in his own way…"  
  
"He does," Naruto admitted, his own voice failing him. "As much as I love him, I'm sure."  
  
"So… you and Itachi are sharing him?" Mikoto asked, sounding curious but still confused – yet, not accusing –, her hands ceasing the movement of cloth over a frying pan.  
  
Naruto couldn't look her in the eye anymore, so he looked to the side, out the window again, where Sasuke and Itachi were engaging in easy conversation, completely oblivious to what was happening in the kitchen. He could just say that yes, they were sharing Sasuke, and it'd be the end of it. But she was a good woman, and she didn't seem as terribly devastated by the recent news as she probably should be, so he couldn't find the heart to lie to her anymore after everything.  
  
"We are not sharing him _exactly_ ," he ended up saying, voice shaking unexpectedly at the confession. "I'm sure someone would get jealous at some point if we had to take turns."  
  
He could tell Mikoto was blinking up at him as she tried to put the pieces together in her own mind, so Naruto closed his eyes – her stare felt more bearable this way.  
  
" _Oh_." She was quick to catch up, thankfully. There was a moment of silence, and then the sound of the frying pan being placed on the counter. "I'm glad." Naruto's eyes snapped open and he immediately looked down at the woman beside him with surprise, noticing that she was smiling warmly at him. "I'm glad they have someone that cares so much for them, and I'm glad you are loved in return. You are such a good man, Naruto-kun. I couldn't stand the thought that you might just be some sort of distraction for the media, and that you might be suffering from unrequited love."  
  
Immediately, all the weight he had been feeling was lifted from Naruto's shoulders and he looked at Mikoto with growing affection. She really was a great woman, he thought, relieved beyond himself. Those two were lucky.  
  
"Mikoto-san…"  
  
She grabbed his hand. "Thank you," she said, smiling gratefully, with such an honesty it almost broke the young man's heart. "For letting me know the truth. And for lightening their way towards the happiness they needed. This wasn't what I wanted for my boys, but… if they're happy and accomplished, then that's more than I could ever hope for." Her eyes became pleading. "Don't tell them I know, though. I want them to tell us in their own time."  
  
Naruto bit his lip, but ended up nodding. He knew what a big deal it would be if the Uchiha brothers knew about their mother's point of view on their relationship, but at the same time, he understood that Mikoto wanted them to go to her with their hearts in the right place. Naruto promised himself that he would help pushing them towards the right direction while still keeping his word to her.  
  
"Does Fugaku-san know about… them?" he inquired softly, enjoying the firm and motherly grip she had on his hand.  
  
"He does," she confirmed, with a small sigh. "He's very perceptive. I think it was harder for him to accept than it was for me. He doesn't talk about it, but even though he looks hostile most of the times, I know that, more than anything, he wishes to be a part of our sons' lives." Mikoto gave him a small, dreamy smile. "You see, Fugaku and I are actually cousins. Both our parents gave us a hard time and tried to pull us apart. We had to run away together and fend for ourselves. We didn't talk to our families for years and years; the way they made us feel was something we resented for a long time." The memory was clearly painful for her, but she never stopped smiling. "Fugaku is a strict father, but when I was pregnant with Itachi, he vowed that he would always support our children, no matter what. When Sasuke was born, I already knew he would follow through with it."  
  
"Wow…" Naruto whispered, surprised by the revelation "I had no idea. I mean, they never talk about this kind of family stuff with me."  
  
"That's because they don't know about it," the petite woman explained simply. "My parents died in a car accident before I gave birth to Itachi, and Fugaku's parents, as well as the rest of our family, don't really talk about it out of shame. We all get along now, but some things were better left buried away, never to be mentioned again."  
  
Moved by the story, Naruto didn't hesitate in turning his hand upwards so it was grabbing Mikoto's. He could see tears in her eyes – of simultaneous sadness, happiness and helplessness – but he made sure that he offered reassurance in the way he held her hand. "Thank you for telling me this. I'm truly grateful that we met."  
  
Her smile broadened so much it reminded Naruto of Sasuke's own smile – honest and open – when he was particularly happy but didn't know someone was watching him.  
  
"Thank you," Mikoto murmured. "Naruto-kun, I liked you from the moment I first talked to you over the phone. You are like a son to me. My boys are lucky to have you. I trust you to take good care of them."  
  
Naruto nodded with emphasis and smiled widely at her. "For as long as I live."  
  


000

  
Sasuke was laying on his back, panting, blurry eyes narrowed at the ceiling of Itachi's plain bedroom. Sweat covered his body from head to toe, and there was a mess of unknown fluids covering his navel, but damn did he feel _good_.  
  
He closed his eyes, only vaguely aware of the way the mattress was jumping due to the events taking place on his left side, accompanied by the grunting and moaning sounds coming from the two bodies next to him.  
  
He heaved a long, contented sigh and placed his right wrist over his eyes. His other hand was resting on the pillow, close to his head. He could hear Itachi mumbling something rather incoherent and Naruto replying back with a mumbled moan, equally intelligible.  
  
Their dynamics were still a little awkward even after those few months the three of them had been together. Sometimes, they did have three-way sex, but when things got heated up way too quickly, it was easier to just take turns and let whatever had to happen, happen, no matter who topped or bottomed. It always involved lots of switching, lots of inserting fingers and muscles in lots of places, lots of licking, kissing and touching, but it was always mind-blowing.  
  
Sasuke had been thoroughly fucked by Naruto while being expertly blown by Itachi. He had cum, and so had the blond, but now the other two were having their way with each other to make Itachi cum, the eldest one doing the fucking, from what Sasuke could hear, so he could find his own completion.  
  
Someone grabbed Sasuke's hand on the pillow and intertwined their fingers with his, and from the angle, he'd guess it was his brother.  
  
Naruto let out a long moan. Sasuke removed his arm from his eyes and looked to the side to see that, indeed, Naruto was also on his back with Itachi on top of him, slamming his merry way inside, his hair loose, falling in an ebony cascade, dangling between them and occasionally brushing Naruto's chest. His handsome features were scrunched up in a look of pure ecstasy, and Sasuke knew he was about to cum.  
  
Closing his fingers more tightly around Itachi's, Sasuke felt him squeezing back and watched almost mesmerized as muscles tensed and his thrusting became more ferocious. He leaned down, to kiss Naruto, who hugged his neck and welcomed his mouth. Unblinkingly, Sasuke kept his eyes focused on the way their lips moved over each other and tongues met voraciously and sloppily. Then, Itachi was groaning against the kiss and shivering as his orgasm took over him and he rode the waves of it at a more languid but no less intense pace.  
  
Sasuke bit his lower lip. Fuck, they were so beautiful.  
  
The two made out for a while before Itachi rolled off Naruto tiredly and also laid on his back, releasing Sasuke's hand in the process. He removed the condom from his softening cock and made a knot in it before dropping it accurately on the nightstand.  
  
"Fuck, how can this be so fucking good every single time?" Naruto asked to no-one in particular, wiping sweat from his brow with his hand. He noticed Sasuke looking his way, so he looked back, blue eyes shining from post-coital bliss, and he smiled fondly. "You okay there, sexy?"  
  
"I'm fine," Sasuke muttered, frowning at the nickname. "I feel gross, though."  
  
"Well, there's no avoiding getting messy where the three of us are concerned," Naruto stated, grinning more broadly. He then sat up, stretching his arms over his head and showing an impressive number of love marks all over his torso and back. "Ah, I have to go."  
  
"Already?" Itachi inquired, propelling himself on his elbows, blind eyes looking exactly at where Naruto was.  
  
"Well, of course," Naruto said casually. "Just because we had amazing morning sex doesn't mean I don't still have shit to do."  
  
"What shit?" Sasuke inquired dryly, sitting up as well with a heavy frown.  
  
"Studying," the blond said, quirking his eyebrows upwards at his lover's tone.  
  
"Seriously, Naruto?" Sasuke hissed, resentment and annoyance filling him inexplicably. "The three of us barely have time together and you're just going to leave us on a fucking Saturday?"  
  
"I told you I have a big exam on Monday."  
  
"Can't you study tomorrow?" Sasuke snapped, knowing just how childish he sounded but not being able to help himself.  
  
Naruto just blinked at him disbelievingly. "Sasuke, you know I barely have time to study with classes and still working for Itachi, so no, I cannot postpone my studying for tomorrow because I need these two days to do as much as I can."  
  
"Sasuke, don't be childish," Itachi interrupted, sensing Sasuke's upcoming outburst. "It is the way it is. We all have busy times and we have to respect each other."  
  
Naruto made a small pout and reached out to touch Sasuke's face gently. "Don't be mad at me. I'll come have dinner with the two of you tomorrow, okay?" He stroked the cheek lovingly and smiled a bit, the pleading look in those azure eyes causing his anger to diminish considerably. "Why don't you guys enjoy the free time together and go have some fun, just the two of you? I'm sure you have a lot of catching up to do, right? I don't think you've had time together in a while."  
  
Biting his lip, Sasuke looked to the side to see that Itachi was listening intently. Sasuke's eyebrows shot upwards at the look of excitement that marked his brother's features.  
  
Now that he thought about it, he and Itachi had never been alone together as lovers. They had gone out for lunch or dinner, but for some unfathomable reason, something always came up and they never got to spend enough time together to just… be a couple. Something he had dreamt about for years, just like he was sure Itachi had.  
  
It wasn't about the sex, no – they already fucked each other more times than he could count. It was simply the fact that it was a wish they should make come true.  
  
Not that he didn't still resent the fact that Naruto wasn't going to be spending the much yearned for weekend with them, but at least the prospect of spending some time alone with Itachi was more than appealing.  
  
Sasuke sighed in resignation, causing Naruto to grin at him. "I'm off to take a shower. You guys should sleep some more and I'll text you later, okay?"  
  
"Whatever," Sasuke replied. Naruto gave him a brief parting kiss before turning to Itachi and doing the same.  
  
"Work hard," Itachi said, as the blond jumped from the bed and walked out of the room in all his naked glory towards the bathroom, Sasuke's eyes following the gawky, but happy, sway of his ass until it disappeared from view.  
  
"I wish you could see his ass," he said to Itachi casually. "That's a sight for sore eyes, I tell you."  
  
Itachi chuckled. "I know his ass far too well, Sasuke. I reckon _feeling_ it is a hundred times better than _seeing_ it." He turned his face to his younger brother, dark eyes seeming to stare straight at him. Sometimes, if Sasuke didn't know better, he could almost swear Itachi was able to see him. And there was always so much feeling in his eyes, too.  
  
"I can't disagree with that," Sasuke said, before letting himself fall backwards so he was lying down again, staring up at the ceiling and feeling terribly light-headed.  
  
Itachi lay down as well, beside him, his hands feeling the mattress so he could evaluate the distance between them. Then, he moved closer to Sasuke, turning his body so he was facing him. Sasuke closed his eyes as an arm surrounded his chest, inching closer to him so this body pressed to his side. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as Itachi swung one leg over one of his.  
  
_To think he spent all those years avoiding contact…_  
  
It was still new to Sasuke, this whole intimacy thing with his older brother. They were becoming rather familiar with each other on a whole other level, and yet, after wanting Itachi for so long, he still felt the novelty of touching and kissing him.  
  
He supposed that a part of him was constantly feeling self-conscious about the fact that they were brothers. Obviously, it wasn't something that upset him, but being with Itachi didn't feel the same way as it did with Naruto because, no matter how they looked at it, there was no escaping the harsh reality that they were, indeed, blood related.  
  
Sometimes, Sasuke felt disgusted at himself for finding it absolutely thrilling. Never did he think about Itachi as just another man – he was his _brother_ , and Sasuke wouldn't want it any other way because he actually took pride in it. He was sure something was seriously wrong with him, but he was far beyond caring at this point. His madness had paid off, and he now had what he wanted. Not only did he finally have Itachi, but they both now had someone from the outside keeping them sane, reassuring them that everything was the way it was supposed to be.  
  
In many ways, Naruto had been the best thing that ever happened to the both of them. Sasuke had so much to thank him for, but his pride would never allow him to express himself in such a way. Luckily for him, Naruto knew him well enough to understand what Sasuke's actions tried to convey to him.  
  
His relationship with the blond wasn't as fluid as the one Naruto had with Itachi. They were like magnets – sometimes their attraction was so powerful they couldn't seem to draw apart, while other times they couldn't stand each other for more than five minutes. They didn't really say those three words to each other as easily as they did to Itachi, and yet, they were definitely good friends and very compatible lovers. Sasuke knew that their bond was special, even if a bit twisted. _Naruto_ was special to him, and Sasuke was sure that he and Naruto would've ended up in the same predicament with or without Itachi if they had met in another reality and under other circumstances.  
  
"So… what do you want to do today?" Itachi inquired softly, pressing his lips to Sasuke's shoulder. In the distance, the sound of the shower running could be heard.  
  
"A sex marathon," Sasuke answered automatically, smirking a bit at his own not-really joke. He could feel the smile on Itachi's lips as they lingered on his skin.  
  
"If that's what you want," he said calmly.  
  
Opening his eyes, Sasuke looked down at him in contemplative silence before asking "What do _you_ want to do?"  
  
"I'm happy as long as I can be with you," Itachi said, moving his naked body in a way that indicated that he was definitely snuggling closer. "We can just stay here all weekend, or we can go out and do something."  
  
"Like going on a date?" the youngest inquired, feeling playful all of a sudden.  
  
"You know we can't simply go on traditional dates," Itachi mumbled, nuzzling his nose on Sasuke's arm. When he spoke again, his voice came out muffled. "But we can go somewhere and… I don't know, talk. Spend time in each other's company. I feel like we should probably do that. There are many things I want to tell you and talk to you about. I miss you."  
  
Sasuke turned to his side so he was facing Itachi, careful not to put too much distance between the two of them. He rested his head over one arm, using the other to surround Itachi's waist. He watched his brother's features contemplatively, noticing that he had closed his eyes and was looking peaceful and content in spite of the way his long hair was a complete mess. He was still smiling gently. It was kind of funny seeing him so careless when he was usually the image of perfect composure.  
  
"You seem really happy that Naruto's not going to be around for the weekend," Sasuke observed, running the tips of his fingers along the curve of Itachi's body.  
  
"It's not like that," the writer said, cracking one eye open. "It's just that I'm glad that I'm finally the one having you all to myself."  
  
Sasuke couldn't help but grin a bit. "Jealous much?"  
  
"A little," Itachi admitted, shrugging lightly. "I'm going to miss the noise, though. And the constant whining." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I will also miss the racket you two usually make as soon as the both of you leave the bed. Your bickering puts me in _the mood_ rather effectively."  
  
"Well, I'll make sure to annoy him enough the next time we're together, just for your pleasure," Sasuke teased, his hand stopping his caresses to rest over Itachi's hip.  
  
"I'm sure you'd have you own share of enjoyment."  
  
Sasuke leaned his head closer so that he was pressing his lips to the corner of Itachi's mouth, causing the other to tilt his own head slightly so he could be properly kissed. It was a soft, slow one, as opposed to the ones they usually shared when in moments of unconcealed lust. Their lips brushed over each other lovingly, gently as their bodies moved instinctively closer until their chests were almost in contact. Itachi's hand was on his back now, palm running up and down his spine in a soothing manner that matched the comfortable mood between them. Sasuke could feel his own heartbeat speed up and his muscles tensing with the beginnings of arousal, but he forced himself to take deep breaths through his nose to keep his hormones in check.  
  
Itachi was right – they did need time for each other, and Sasuke wanted to savor it as best as he could. In fact, he was pretty excited about the prospect of spending the next day and half with him.  
  
"I miss you, too," he whispered against Itachi's lips, a little out of breath.  
  
"Let's just do this for a while," Itachi murmured lowly, planting small, almost child-like kisses on Sasuke's mouth. "Then, we'll shower and I'll make us some breakfast and we can decide what to do with our free time."  
  
When Itachi nibbled slightly at his lower lip, only to run the tip of his tongue over it afterwards, Sasuke lost the will to offer any kind of input. Moaning slightly, he parted his lips in welcoming and allowed himself to be kissed until they couldn't breathe anymore.  
  
TBC…

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